The Dragon and the Wolverine
by Fenrisulven13
Summary: AU. The Shannon family is forced to leave their home planet and travel to the farthest reaches of known space and there they encounter others that have also fled from something that will one day come to haunt the Inner Sphere, And their enemies from home have not given up either The Shannon family/Kono.L/N.Taylor/A.Washington and others. I'm very unsure of the second genre here.
1. Family Reunion

**I strongly recommend you at least know the basics of Battletech and have seen Terra Nova before reading this fic, some events might be different and some names WILL be different to fit my story better but I will try my best NOT to piss off too many BT fans.  
This is obviously a crossover so many of my OC's will be following the actual TN characters.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own either Terra Nova or Battletech and I don't own any of the characters except my own, and if anyone want to sue me….TOUGH LUCK I don't have any fortune anyway!  
And I write this for my own pleasure and no gain what so ever.  
So read, review and enjoy.  
And a big thanks to doctor Anthony for letting me borrow his OC's , you can read about them in his stories among them the excellent "New beginnings and reunions" which I strongly recommend you read.**

Panpour system Federated Commonwealth late 3047

The old jumpship had seen better days, but it was all they really could afford, so here it was in orbit  
around the Federated Commonwealth world of Panpour,  
Jim Shannon had been the in planetary police force, high ranking too until he had arrested a crime lord that had one too many family ties in the planetary government, after that Jim lost his job and his family had been harassed and his grandfather had been murdered, the old man had taken care of him and his brother Ben since their parents died in an accident when Jim was only little over ten years old and Ben had been an infant, And the fact that Jim and his wife had decided to have a third child had further complicated matters since though the population laws had been loosened the tradition was still to have few children preferably no more than two and they had been ostracized.

With them was Jim's old partner Kono Lao and over a thousand more families were now preparing the old ship for travel, most were of welsh origin but some of Indian origin(Elisabeth were Indian and Jim and Ben were welsh) all of them had been on the receiving end of the mafia for years some had even been former slaves of some criminal or another in brothels and illegal shops and farms, all of which Jim and Kono had liberated during their police raids until they drew the wrath of the crime lord Henry Radcliff.  
His wife Elisabeth and himself had decided to leave the Federated Commonwealth all together for the Taurian Concordat, Jim had sent for his younger brother Ben who was a member of a mercenary unit the Crescent Hawks under Jason Youngblood.

"It's been months since we heard from Ben, maybe he got held up somewhere?" Elisabeth asked worriedly,

"Don't worry Liz in his last message he said they were only a few jumps away, and if I know HIM he will want to take his beloved _Axman_ with him, which means he will have to take a large jumpship to get here" Jim said reassuringly,

They had thanks to inheritance from Elisabeth's parents mostly managed to purchase an _Invader_ class jumpship; despite its name it was NOT considered a military vessel, the crew of the ship had thanks to the respect they had for Jim and his family had elected him captain and the ship had been named the _Pilgrim_, they had even managed to procure two old_ Confederate_ class dropships one of which they had named _Hope_ and had loaded with a few workmechs and two battlemechs; Jim's _Banshee _ a 95 ton assault mech that he inherited from his father and Kono's old _Urbanmech_, a 30 ton mech for as its name suggested urban warfare, the other one they had named _Refuge_ had been designated for the refugees, and in one of the hangar bays on the _Pilgrim_ a _Tigress_ patrol craft and a couple outdated _Sparrowhawk _aerospace fighters rested.

Jim was looking at the _treasure map_ left by his grandfather of an old Star League cache that his son Josh had mistakenly found in the now former Shannon house, and according to his grandfather before he was murdered a few months earlier, led to an old Star league cache,

"This is deep in the wilderness, it's no wonder anyone hasn't found it yet" Kono said apprehensively,

"We'll wait until Ben arrives, then we'll make a play for it," Jim said sternly, then patted Kono on the shoulder,

"I agree Jimmyboy he is the only experienced mechwarrior of us, not to mention he's been serving with one of the most famous merc commands in the known universe" Kono said approvingly,

Belaire system  
26.15 light years from Panpour

Ben Shannon had been with the Crescent Hawks ever since he left mechwarrior training at age twenty and had been serving with the Hawks for ten years now, he had been recruited by none other than Jason Youngblood himself both since he had known Ben's Grandfather when HE was at the Pacifica training school, AND because of Ben's outstanding performance at piloting Medium mechs and Assault mechs like his _Axman_ and in the war of 3039 Ben had received three separate decorations one of whom by the Archon Katrina Steiner herself, and had been promoted to Lieutenant.

Now Ben was on his way back home to his birthplace….to his family he hadn't seen them for almost seven years, the contents of the message still burned in his heart, his family had been threatened by some criminal and their grandfather Joshua had been murdered four months earlier, Ben had asked for resignation, Captain Youngblood had reluctantly accepted and had even offered to give him a ride there as the unit had business in that direction anyway, so he had sent a reply to Jim that he was coming home, actually he was furious and had even entertained the thought of invading the planet alone if he had to but had been calmed down by his friends in the unit,

"_I wonder if Josh and Maddy even remember me and Zoe have never even met me. It has been seven years after all_" he thought as he was staring out the porthole and down at the planet below they had been there for 6 days recharging the jump drive and resupplying, he heard foot steppes behind him and turned around to see Lieutenant Jen Pearce daughter of former member Rex Pearce and Captain Jason Youngblood smiling at him,

"Looking forward to see your family again hon?" Jen said as she came up to him,

"Is it THAT obvious?" Ben asked, Jason and Jen chuckled

"Hon you've been doing little else but moping around for months since ya got that message, though I DO understand your feelings about your old pops" Jen said

"Sad that it have to be under such circumstances Ben" Jason said with empathy in his voice,

Ben smiled at him, "Thanks sir thanks Jen, I'll miss the Hawks and I won't forget what you've done for me….all of you" he said,

"Your family needs you Ben, when it all comes down to it family is the most important thing in the universe" Jason replied and turned to check on the preparations, the jump drive was almost fully charged and they had already resupplied so they were ready to leave whenever the drive was ready,

A few hours later Jason's voice could be heard over the intercom,

"All hands this is the Captain prepare for hyperspace jump sequence" Ben sat down, hyperspace jumps were usually no problem but once in a while they could get somewhat turbulent, Ben remembered when he had experienced his first jump, he puked all over the com officer, he smirked at the memory,

"Jump sequence in 5….4….3….2….1" in a bright flash of light the massive ship blinked out of existence and was gone.

Panpour system high orbit

Jim and Kono had dinner with Jim's family in the galley of the _Pilgrim_, they had been supplying all they thought they would need for the series of jumps that would take them to the Hyades cluster, all they needed was to take a trip down to that cache and see what they could find, though Jim didn't have much hope of finding much but he wanted to wait until Ben arrived to maximize their chances of success if they should run into more of Radcliff's thugs, they were leisurely chatting or rather listening to Maddy as she rambled on about facts of the Taurian Concordat, understandably Maddy was excited to go there since the school system was far more advanced than in the inner Sphere in most cases when suddenly the intercom crackled to life,

"Captain Shannon, Lieutenant Lao, you are needed on the bridge there's a jump point opening in the system" Ensign Vaishnavi reported, Jim ran over to the intercom and punched the transmit button,

"We'll be right there" he said and turned to his family, "gotta go" he said and together with Kono ran for the bridge.

At the jump point a bright flash signaled the arrival of a jumpship, and the _Crescent Talon _belonging to the Crescent Hawks appeared as the typical lightshow abated,

"Welcome to the Panpour system, or should I say welcome home in your case Lieutenant Shannon" Lieutenant Pearce proclaimed,

As the ship neared the planet Ben could see another ship in high orbit he walked up to the communications console and tapped a few buttons,

"Sir the ship is identified as the _Pilgrim_; it's my family's ship" he said to Jason,

On the bridge of the_ Pilgrim_ Jim received the identification signal as the _Crescent Talon_ broadcasted a haling frequency, Jim hit the com unit and stared as the screen lazily came to life,

"Told you we should have demanded a tour of the ship BEFORE we agreed to pay that extortionist price" Kono blurted out annoyed,

"BZZZZ….you read?" all the screen showed was static until Jim punched the console and it finally cleared up, the technician in charge of it glared at him,

"I repeat civilian vessel Pilgrim, DO you read? This is the Crescent Talon of the Crescent Hawks" a woman with green hair asked,

"This is Captain Jim Shannon, of the Pilgrim receiving you loud and ….almost clear" Jim answered

"Finally we almost started to think you were a derelict, this is Lieutenant Jen Pearce of the Crescent Hawks, and I've got someone that wish to talk to ya" the woman said haughtily and moved away from the screen and a face Jim hadn't seen in seven long years showed up,

"Jim is that what you call a ship?" was the first thing Ben said, which made Jim chuckle

"I've missed you too little brother, looks like you came in style" Jim answered

"Could you come over?" he continued

"Sure thing we're already preparing to move my things over" Ben answered

After about an hour when Ben's possessions including his battlemech had been brought over,  
Ben stepped out of the airlock connecting the two jumpships as they were docked together, he was accosted by his brother and sister in law as well as Kono, who almost crushed him in a group hug,

Maddy, Josh and Zoe was walking towards the airlock with Maddy and Zoe almost running Josh was still angry with their father for _screwing things up_ and getting fired so they would have to leave, even though he was glad his girlfriend Kara and her family were going with them which soothed things over significantly, Maddy had been only eight years old last time she saw her Uncle Ben and was happy they would all be together now and Zoe had only heard of him and seen some pictures and holo-vids of him and was anxious to see him,

When they got to the airlock that linked their ship to the other one they saw a man in a jump suit designed for mechwarriors with some unit insignia of a hawks head and officers insignias on the shoulders,

"UNCLE BEN!" Maddy squealed and ran for him, as he turned around and smiled at her as she ran right into him and tried crushing him in a hug,

"Easy there girl" Ben said perplexed and smiling then he took a look at her

"Wait a minute or two, THIS can't be little Maddy who played with dolls last time I saw her?" Ben said with a wide smile,

"And if she gets any prettier she'll be dangerous!" he stated, which made Maddy blush and giggle, Ben then turned to Zoe and kneeled down to her level as she stared at him apprehensively,

"Are you my Uncle Ben?" she asked timidly,

"I suppose I am" Ben answered smiling at her, he didn't want to push too fast and decided she would have to get used to him, he rose to look at Josh,

"I'm guessing a hug for your old Uncle is out off the question for a guy your age?" Ben asked and smirked,

"You guessed right Uncle Ben" Josh said trying to sound cool,

"How about a man hug then?" Ben asked playing along with the notion that had stalked the male half of humanity for thousands of years,

Josh gave him a quick hug and backed away as Kara also came forward to greet Ben in a less awkward manner,

"So folks why don't we get this thing ready for jump so we can leave this dump?" Ben asked after all the questions and heartfelt greetings,

"Come with us, we need to show you something that May be of importance" Jim said and gestured for Ben and Kono to join him Elisabeth and Josh followed too while Maddy went to put Zoe to sleep,

"_Always the dutiful girl, hope that doesn't haunt her later in life_" Ben thought as Maddy led Zoe away to her family's quarters.

Later in the officers lounge, it wasn't too shabby, they were all sitting around the small conference table as Vince Cronkite the ships chief engineer took the data crystal and put it into the holo viewer on the wall and the screen flickered to life, and showed first the planet from orbit and then zoomed in over the northern continent into the mountain region there, and then over what looked like some bunker,

"Is that what I think it is?" Ben exclaimed

"This is one of the caches used by the SLDF as a depot when they were preparing to invade the Taurian Concordat in the reunification war" Kono stated as the data of the cache was shown, Panpour had been a major staging area for the SLDF and AFFS as they prepared to invade the Taurian Concordat,

"And according to this data it was never used as the data on this crystal was made AFTER the war, it was apparently used as a depot until after the fall of the Star League when it must have been forgotten like so many others" he continued, now Ben was beginning to smile and stood up walked up to the screen and pointed at a large more or less clear area apart for some bushes and trees

"This must be where they landed their dropships" he stated and then turned to face the others around the table

"So what are our _assets_ for this mission?" Ben queried,

"Dad's old Banshee and Kono's Urban plus a couple of Sparrowhawk fighters and a Tigress" Jim replied,

"Not the best, but we're raiding the place not occupying it" Ben declared deadpan

"Sorry it took some time but Zoe is asleep now, and Kara is looking after her" Maddy said

Everyone turned as Maddy came in through the door,

"It's alright sweetheart" Elisabeth said, and Maddy took a chair beside her mother and looked at the screen and used her plexpad to hook up to the system so she could view the data more accurately.


	2. Treasure Hunting

As Maddy rambled all the facts she knew about the old class M7 Star League cache, everyone just stared at her, especially Ben who didn't know she was this knowledgeable,

"The M7's were large enough to house everything from small arms and larger weapons and ammunition to battlemechs and aerospace fighters and even dropships and possibly parts for jumpships and weapons for the same but we should also be careful the cache most likely have ancient defense systems that may still be in operation" Maddy rambled, the others around the table grinned widely at Ben who looked as if he just blacked out,

"Wow sweetie, I KNEW you were smart but I had NO IDEA?" Ben exclaimed surprised, Maddy smiled, and Ben turned to Elisabeth

"Did she just manage all that in ONE sentence?" he asked, Elisabeth smirked and nodded,

"Mmm-Hmmm!" Jim, Kono and Josh hummed simultaneously

"Ben since you have military experience of this sort of thing, I'd like it if you took command on the ground, sort off act as our mech commander" Jim said, and Ben nodded, he HAD after all learned from one of the very best mechwarriors and combat tacticians and from a man of one of the most distinguished bloodlines in the inner sphere,

"Alright, here's what we'll do, Maddy could you punch up a hologram of the outside of the base?" Ben asked cutting to the chase, Maddy did as he asked

"Ok, we land the dropship here" he pointed to a spot on the hologram and Maddy simply added a dropship through her plex,

"Jim since your mech lacks any jump jets and is somewhat slow so I want you here outside the cache, and Kono your mech is slow as hell BUT I'm guessing you still have those dangerously powerful jump jets?" Kono nodded,  
and Ben continued "good then I want you inside the dropship but ready to jump out, but your primary job is to make sure we don't get any unwanted guests on the dropship" Ben continued

"Me, since my Axman is the most powerful as well as fastest I will position myself here and patrol in a wide arc, and Jim if they get past me I want you to add support to Kono at the dropship" Jim and Kono nodded,

"Good is there any decent aero jocks among the crew?" Ben asked

"Me" Josh squeaked, which made Elisabeth to shake her head

"No Josh I don't want you out there in case this turns out to be dangerous" she said sternly

"But mom? I'm the best pilot on this ship, please Uncle Ben give me a chance I won't let you down" Josh stated pleadingly, Ben looked at Jim and Elisabeth for confirmation,

"NO, he's only seventeen" Elisabeth cried out and looked at Jim

"We need someone that is good behind the stick, we most likely won't get into any trouble, and this is for precaution" Jim stated and looked back at her, after a few moments Elisabeth relented and Jim looked at Josh sternly,

"But if it DOES turn into trouble Josh, remember this will NOT be targeting drones and they will most definitely shoot back, so be careful, is that clear?" Jim said sternly, Josh nodded and smiled widely

"Good that you're with us Josh but you'll follow my orders without even asking and you'll do fine" Ben said even more sternly,

"So what infantry assets do we have?" Ben asked looking around at everyone until Vince looked up, he was a short but well built man that made him appear short and stocky, he looked like a dwarf from one of those holo films about people fighting over a ring or something,

"About thirty among the passengers was in the planetary militia, then additionally eleven that were in the police force with the captain and the lieutenant" he said with a very gravelly Scottish accent, pointing at Jim and Kono, Ben frowned for a moment and looked over the hologram at the cache schematics again,

"Well from the looks of things, we'll need at least twenty of the former militia with us the rest should stay on the jumpship to guard it while we're down there, what kind of weapons and armor do we have onboard?" Ben queried,

"We managed to procure some old slug throwers dating back to the third succession war but not much in the way of armor other than a few flak vests " Kono stated , Ben nodded

"Okay then, I want the twenty we're taking with us to be equipped to the best of our ability, I think that will be all" Ben said almost satisfied,

"And I'll come too" Maddy piped up, which made both Jim and Elisabeth as well as Kono to almost choke,

"OH NO YOU WON'T, young lady" Jim stated as if it wasn't even up for debate, and tried to stare her down

"But dad there might be valuable data in the base computers, not to mention you'll need someone who understands the systems, and since I'm the best on this ship with computers AND I know about lost technology" Maddy stated with certainty and returned her father's stare, Ben had to admire her he saw a lot of Elisabeth as well as the Shannon stubbornness in those honey brown eyes of hers, Maddy could be stubborn when she was little as he well remembered, just trying to get her to sleep when she did not want to was a feat in itself,

"She's got ya there Jimmyboy" Kono said which earned him a glare from Jim,

"Well okay, BUT you'll stay on the dropship with your mother and the security squad until Cronk has made sure it's safe to enter the cache, clear?" Jim relented, he didn't like the idea but Maddy was right

"Crystal clear" Maddy promised and beamed at him, she was excited to visit an actual Star League era cache, "_WHO knows what treasures we'll find in it? Both tech and knowledge_" she thought happily while looking more than a little smug at going,

"Okay then we should get ready; I want to have this done so we can get out of here, before Radcliff wises up on us" Jim commanded, everyone nodded in agreement and began to leave the lounge to start preparations for the raid,  
Jim was glad to have his whole family together again in a few days at most they would be on their way to a hopefully with a lot of valuable technology and data to be able to start a better life.

The old dropship went down through the atmosphere like a meteor howling as it's breaking thrusters came to life to slow the descent,  
Onboard everyone was eager to get as much loot as the dropship could carry, and then blast off and jump the system, Kono noticed the radar jamming system worked fine as there was no indication of detection by the planetary defense force, he was mightily impressed by Ben's expertise in tactics despite the younger mans modesty he KNEW how to handle this,

"Captain we should be touching down in five minutes" he reported to Jim that nodded and contacted Josh on the com unit,

"Josh, get yourself ready to launch" Jim ordered

"Yes dad" came the reply in a happy boyish tone

"And it's SIR NOT dad" Jim commanded with mock anger, there was some snickering on the other end, Kara had wanted to come too but had been relegated by Jim for defense of the _Pilgrim_ as she as well was a pilot, so she was at the moment piloting the other Sparrowhawk, while Zoe got to stay with her friend Nina and her family,

"YES SIR" Josh said obediently but Jim could hear how he struggled not to laugh,

"Okay, launch now and keep a lookout for visitors" Jim ordered.

Josh's fighter left the _Hope_ and started his patrol around the landing site,

"Everything seems to be A-OKAY" Josh blurted out,

A few minutes later the dropship touched and lowered its ramp down and Ben and Jim walked their battlemechs down and as they planned and Jim positioned his mech at the entrance to the massive bunker while Ben did a small patrol around the dropship when he was satisfied of the safety of the ship he gave the go-ahead to their improvised militia to with a few workmechs to start prepare to enter the cache, and a couple of men escorted Maddy to the entrance where she linked her plexpad into a port beside the doors and started hacking the system,  
it didn't take long until the doors were slowly opening,

"OPEN SESAME" Maddy shouted in delight

"Now now, sweetheart" Elisabeth gently scolded but smiled nonetheless at her daughters whooping,

"Security team move in" Ben ordered as his mech was marching around,

"Uncle Ben the command centre of the base should be right here, I'll send it to your view screen" Maddy said, Ben took a look at it and smiled,

"Gold star Maddy" Ben commended,

"As the team moved inside and made sure the security system was indeed none active a small detail escorted Maddy and Elisabeth not wanting her daughter to be in there alone through the complex, and they soon found the central core where Maddy again started working on it while Cronkite and his men checked around, in the meantime Ben, Kono and Jim kept a close watch around the old base while Josh made a flyby to check the surrounding mountains.

Henry Radcliff observed as his men were whipping a man half to death with barbed wire whips after the screamed so loudly that it brought a smile to Radcliff's face he held up his hand and said "Hold please Demitri".

As Demitri stopped the torture Radcliff said "Now we are passed the basic questions or as I call them, the tiny little questions. About why you took money from the protection funds, how you could betray my trust, now we get to the real questions about who you truly are".

Radcliff's second in command Andrew came up to him and interrupted him by saying "Sorry sir". Radcliff looked at Andrew and the victim as he said "I get to the heart of the matter and always, interruptions!"

Andrew then said "Sir one of our spy satellites just picked up one of the Shannon's dropships entering atmosphere and are touching down on these coordinates" Radcliff looked and smiled

"Sooo THAT'S where the cache are?" he chuckled, Radcliff knew that Shannon had been preparing an old jumpship for him, his family and about a thousand others in order to flee Panpour,

"_Well MISTER Shannon now I know what you are up to_" he thought and then turned to Andrew

"That slave camp Shannon raided four months ago, do we still have any assets there" he asked

"Well no slaves sir, but there are some of the police that are working for us stationed there, a Lance of…. let's see a Firestarter and about seven Locusts" Andrew answered,

Alright then send them and whatever fighters we may have and also prepare a team to take that cache it will make a nice prize and make sure the Shannon women if they are there are captured alive and UN-spoiled, I have plans for them, and kill the rest, though we can't assault their jumpship since that would annoy the planetary guard too much and not all of them are on our payroll" Radcliff added with a glint in his eye that made Andrew shiver

"But we could get the planetary government to impound the ship sir, though it will take some time" Andrew said

"Do so all of it, and remember if any harm comes to the Shannon women I will have the heads of whoever idiots are in that lance" Radcliff threatened and Andrew nodded and scurried off to obey his masters commands,

Radcliff picked up a dagger and said to the man "Now we get to spend some time, finding out about your true self. Tell me Samuel" the knife was stabbed into Sam whose throat was so sore from the screams all he did to acknowledge the pain was groan.

"Do you know know about the philosophy of Stefan Amaris?"

Maddy finally got the base power grid working after three hours, and started checking through the computer systems after a while she radioed the others,

"Dad I found the caches register, there should be storehouses with small arms weapons here, as well as what seems to be a Mech store room and….Oh my? According to the manifest there should be a Stinger LAM and a few other types, there also seems to be a gigantic storeroom to the east of the cache" she said excited, Cronkite's squad moved to check out the storerooms after half an hour Cronkite radioed Jim and Ben,

"Sirs I think we have a BIG problem" he said ominously

"What?" both Jim and Ben said at the same time,

"We're going to need a bigger dropship, or we may have to abandon some if this, I'm starting to send out the work crew with the first of the loot, you're going to LOVE the pulse laser rifles"

"How many are there Cronkite?" Ben queried

"About ten crates worth I'd say, laddie and there seems to be some sort of advanced armor as well" Cronkite said happily

It didn't take long for the workmechs started to deliver the various artifacts they found, when Elisabeth radioed the entrance again,

"Jim, Ben Kono, we have checked that large storeroom and I think some of our troubles are solved"

"How's so?" Jim asked

"We found a dropship, must be centuries old can you send in Kono since he's good with these things" she answered,

"Kono you heard that?" Ben asked

"OHYES I DID" Kono practically yelled back

"Can you see if you can get the other dropship to function?" Ben asked again

"Already on my way" Kono answered as he started off the ramp with his mech,

When Kono got to the dropship he started dancing a jig in his cockpit as he saw it was a mech carrier, and radioed some of the security squad to meet him there,

"Maddy, this room must be a hangar of some sort; can you see if you can open it?" Kono asked

"Yes Uncle Kono" Maddy answered, and soon massive bay doors were opening above the dropship

"I DID say we were not going to occupy the place?" Ben said flabbergasted at the data Maddy sent him after a while, "Jim I don't think we'll have to worry about the economy for a long while, assuming we get that dropship working, you think the _Pilgrim_ can take two dropship" Ben asked before Maddy cut in

"Uncle Ben, the Invader class jumpship can handle at three larger dropships without any trouble, this seems to be an old _Excalibur _class military dropship that was developed in 2786" she rambled giddily, though it got Jim worried and apparently the gods or fates or whatever decided to prove just that to him when Josh called him,

"Eh, Dad Uncle Ben, looks like we may have some company; I'm reading two light aero fighters on approach vector" he said nervously,

"Just keep it together Josh" Ben commanded as the fighters entered his radar range as well,

"Okay Josh, do NOT fire until they show themselves as hostiles, you got that?"

"Yes Uncle Ben" came a nervous reply

"Hey Josh, there's no one and NOTHING in that cockpit but you, don't go gun happy up there" Ben said calmly to Josh

Then a radio call came through to Jim's console,

"Did you REALLY think the boss was going to let you coppers just take what is rightfully HIS?" a man with an eye patch said mockingly

"We'll be taking that loot and your lives off your hands now" he said again sneering at Jim through the view screen, Jim scowled

"Tell your boss that he bit off more than he could chew when he decided to make an enemy of us" Jim said angrily

"Josh you're free to go weapons hot I repeat fire at will, take care of those fighters, but let them come in at us first before you open up" Ben commanded

"Okay sir"

Josh looked at his displays and they read that the approaching fighters targeting system was trying to lock on, and just as when his great-grandfather taught him he steadied his nerves, one of the fighters started an attack run at the _Hope_ while the other did the same against his father's mech, Josh allowed them to come in close enough and then his targeting system locked on, and he fired,  
the first fighter turned into a ball of flame as Josh's lasers must have hit something vital.

"WHAT the devil?" the remaining mercenary exclaimed and veered off from his intended target, as whoever was flying that archaic fighter appeared to be more than an adequate pilot,

"Whoever ya are, ya got lucky with that cheap shot, now let's dance ashole" he growled out and started chasing after Josh's _Sparrowhawk_ but soon found out that while an outdated and very old aerospace fighter it was much more agile than his own heavier fighter and the pilot was more than a match, Josh simply did as his great-grandfather had told him many years ago and cleared his mind and took his more agile fighter into a steep climb something his opponent had trouble with.

On the ground Ben noticed mech signatures on his radar and positioned himself behind the _hope_, and as the hostile mechs came into view of Jim's mech they hailed him

"Attention Shannon, this cache and everything in it belongs to Mister Radcliff, surrender everything you've found and we may just let you leave here with your lives" the leader said with an arrogant voice, and before Jim could answer Ben contacted the hostile mechs

"Attention bandits, I am Ben Shannon brother of Jim Shannon, foster brother of Kono Lao grandson of Joshua Shannon, and member of the Crescent Hawks mercenary unit under Jason Youngblood, you have caused my family and so many others so much harm and suffering" he said into his view screen so the thugs could see his face and marched his mech out into the open so the bandits could see his unit insignia that still adorned the shoulders of his _Axman_ battlemech, he stood there challenging them to fire first, he smirked when he saw what battlemechs they were piloting three _Locusts_,

"_Pathetic_" he thought,

"You need any help Ben?" Jim asked ready to come to his assistance,

"No you stay near the entrance and guard the dropship, I'll deal with these cretins" Ben replied and turned back his attention to the bandits

"Make peace with whatever gods you will for I send you to them, bandit scum!" Ben challenged and engaged his jump jets that brought him into a wide arc over the bandit mechs, Ben had always hated bandits and usually showed little mercy towards such people if at all,

"Oh SHIET! He IS a _Crescent Hawk_" one of the bandits cried out but too late as the _Axman _landed right in the middle of them and swung it's ax into the central structure of the one it was facing and then let up on the other two.

Meanwhile Josh had finally dispatched the remaining bandit fighter and could see another group of mech signatures approaching where Ben and his father was, but he had taken a couple of hits and realized his fighter would not be able to do much more and came down and landed in the bay of the _Hope_ and quickly found his motorcycle and with it took off into the cache,

"Where are you going?" Jim demanded to know as Josh sped past him

"My fighter's had it, I'm gonna see if I can find something in here that can help out" Josh replied as he sped into the cache, straight for the mech storeroom according to his map display,

Kono with Cronkite's help finally managed to start up the ancient dropship and ordered the crew and security squad to start loading up as the _Hope_ was nearing full capacity, they had managed to load what mechs they found there were not many, but among them was something that caught his eye; And original model _Starslayer_ a 50 ton medium Mech"_That's mine_" he thought and grinned mischievously,

At the command centre Maddy was scared as she could see on a display the battle unfolding outside, worried about her dad and Uncle, even though it looked like they were doing fine but she was worried nonetheless and frightened of what the bandits might do if they managed to get past them she had heard a lot of gruesome stories about how bandits treated prisoners if they even took any, so she kept herself busy by downloading everything in the computer memory unto her plexpad or sending it straight to the _Hope's_ computer memory "_If we sell some of this data to the Concordat they HAVE to let us stay_" she thought, happy to do her part for her family and crew on the _Pilgrim_, when suddenly Josh called her on the com,

"Hey Mads where were that LAM Mech you rambled about before?" he asked, she was taken aback by his question not to mention that he was in the cache and not in the air helping her dad and Uncle fend of those bandits,

"Why aren't you out there helping dad and Uncle Ben?" she asked

"My fighter took a couple of hits" he replied

"Are you alright?" Maddy asked fretfully

"I'm fine, where are that _Stinger LAM_?" Josh asked

"In the west wing it's marked by a roman numeral ten"

"A WHAT?"

"An X, Josh" she explained, after which Josh cut the com

Outside Ben had dispatched the last of the _Locusts_ and now realized there were more bandit Mechs inbound one of them looked like a firestarter; these Battlemechs were equipped with flamers that didn't do much impact damage BUT they caused a lot of heat especially for the Mech being hit, often causing the heat sinks to overload and cause the Mech to shut down sometimes even causing the power plant to go critical "_Better stay clear of his flamers, don't want the Mech to mushroom on me_" he thought as he engaged his jump jets again to put some distance between himself and the _Firestarter_ when he noticed another flock of four _Locusts_ harassing Jim's _Banshee_; It was a very old design but Jim and their father had replaced the small auto canon with a large one dealing more damage, he swore as another flame blast hit his _Axman_ and brought the heat level dangerously high, once again he engaged the jump jets that took him closer so he could give Jim some seemingly badly needed assistance, he could see that Jim's Mech was limping heavily at 95 tons it was an impressive Mech but the _Locust_ was a nimble little bastard of a mech and fast, too fast for Jim to properly engage with his auto canon , plus these _Locusts _ had apparently their machine guns replaced with medium lasers which made for three medium lasers in total on each Mech, nonetheless Jim managed to down one of them before the others ganged up on him,

"Ben, their lasers are causing my Mech to start cooking, I'm reading critical failure in ten of my heat sinks" Jim exclaimed, his Mech was old and it hadn't been serviced for years,

Ben's _Axman_ brought down its ax on one _Locust_ turning it into scrap metal, before the _Firestarter_ caught up on him and started blasting with its flamers again, and Ben unwilling to leave Jim at the mercy of the bandit Mechs stayed in front and took the punishment,

"_Warning heat sink limit reached plant approaching critical failure Mech shut down imminent_" Ben heard the computer voice blare out,

"YEAH tell me something I DON'T know!?" he exclaimed in welsh and flailed with his ax against the _Firestarter_,

Then like fire from the sky lasers started impacting on the _Firestarter_ until it hit the ammo store for the flamers that exploded and blew the bandit Mech apart in a cascade of fire, by now Jim's heat level had been brought down sufficiently enough to allow him to start maneuvering again as the bandits had decided that Ben was the larger threat and had ganged up on him instead, with his PPC he brought down one enemy that had grown overconfident enough to remain stationary as the shot went straight through his Mech which exploded as its power plant went critical, Ben whacked another with his ax that got too close, and then destroyed the last _Locust_ with his autocanons  
as a Aerospace fighter that looked like nothing either had seen or heard about landed and then converted into what looked like a _Stinger_ Battlemech,

"A _Stinger_ LAM, never thought they even existed anymore?" Ben exclaimed as he remembered Maddy rambling about it,

"Did I miss anyone?" Josh asked excitedly,

"Nah I don't think so son, the last one is limping home as we speak" Jim replied and smiled when his heat levels were returning to normal again

"Nice shooting kid, not to mention you managing that old dinosaur of an Aero Mech" Ben said proudly

"I'd say you've earned yourself a call sign" he continued

"Yeah?" Josh asked happily

"Your call sign shall be _Skyfire_ from now on kid" Ben declared

"Dad can I have this Mech please?" Josh managed to sound like a ten year old in a candy store, Jim relented

"Sure but we have to check it to make sure it won't go boom with you in it first" Jim relented,

"How is everyone, any injuries?" asked Elisabeth worry clear in her voice

"Nothing serious babe, other than my Mech feels like _swizz _cheese, and Ben nearly got cooked in his Mech, if it hadn't been for Josh showing up with that weird _Stinger_ we'd be toast….especially Ben" Jim said chuckling as Ben gave him the finger salute with his _Axman's_ finger, and Josh was laughing like crazy at the bantering.

"Dad, Uncle Ben we've finished loading the other dropship with what we could find, and I and Mom are heading back to the _Hope_ now"

"One more thing sweetie, have you downloaded everything from the computers yet?" Jim asked

"Yes Dad, all of it is either on my plex or in the _Hope's_ main computer, you wouldn't believe what I've found, I think it's a memory core of some kind" she exclaimed excitedly,

"Good, then purge the base computer of everything, leave a virus while you're at it, as a little farewell present for Radcliff, and also make sure we haven't missed anything" he said

"Okay Dad" she answered

"Don't worry Jimmyboy, we have enough advanced weapons and equipment to start our own merc company, and I count six Battlemechs including Josh's new toy, they're loaded onto the dropships now, it's gonna be packed in but it's worth it" Kono blurted out through the radio,

As both dropships took off for the atmosphere, in a cushy office in Matam Panpour's capital city a balding man was smoking a cigar smirking at the wealth and power he would gain when the contents of that Star League cache was his and that upstart ex-cop was dead and rotting in those mountains except for his head that would adorn the wall in the office along with the head of his friend Lao as well, Henry Radcliff mused what he would do to the man's family sell them off to slavery or better yet keep the women as his personal slaves….now THAT made him feel good, he had seen pictures of Shannon's wife and she was a vision of beauty the eldest daughter too and they were both very intelligent, he would exploit their _talents_ in every way and show them off as a warning that NOBODY messes with the Radcliff family.

As Henry sat there his daughter Tashaya entered, she did NOT look happy,

"What is it now?" Henry asked his daughter annoyed at being interrupted in his fantasies,

"They got away, and they totally thrashed our men as well, and it looks as if they may have purged the computers as well, we'll have to check more thoroughly " she said, and walked up to his desk

Henry Radcliff looked as if he was going to implode with anger as he threw a vase that stood on his desk into the wall it shattered into pieces,

"DAMN YOU JIM SHANNON AND ALL YOUR BLOODY KIN!" He roared and crushed the cigar in his hand

"Shall we use our influence in ComStar to track them?" Tashaya asked calmly completely unfazed by her father's furious rant

"No prepare my personal jumpship, we're going to Terra to meet with Primus Adams directly, he will NOT be happy about this either" Henry growled

"And contact Smythe as well, he may want to _join _in this, since he has as much reason as us to hate the Shannon's" Henry said remembering the man who some years back had a run in with Jim Shannon's younger brother Ben when Smythe had with Radcliff's help managed to avoid trial on charges of rape, Ben had given Smythe an impressive set of scars for the crime,

Tashaya shrugged Smythe's _tastes_ were even more twisted than both her father's and her own for that matter.


	3. Pilgrimage

After they had docked both dropships to the _Pilgrim _and everyone met in the main mess hall to meet the cheering crew, they had heard what had happened on the planet and how Radcliff's bandit mercenaries had gotten their _butts kicked_ thoroughly, to most it felt almost like poetic justice when Kono told them of how Maddy had infected the computer core with a virus making any information in there all but useless,

"Okay we managed to get a hold of some really good loot from the cache, but we have lingered long enough here as it is, so I want to start pre jump preparations, next stop the Taurian Concordat" Jim declared to even more cheering, after some hero worship from mostly Kara to Josh for his rescue of his father and Uncle, Elisabeth stopped the three Shannon men before they could sneak off,

"Josh, Jim I want you to go straight to the infirmary so I can give you a check-up" she commanded, and then she noticed Ben trying to sneak off,  
"you too Ben you look AND smell like you've been in an oven" she ordered with stern voice and a glare that allowed for NO protests as the three Shannon men walked towards the infirmary obediently, which caused both Kono and Cronkite to laugh,

"They can face just about anything but the Shannon women stare" Kono chuckled and then went about taking care of the pre-jump procedures.

There was a jump point opening and a smaller jumpship appeared in the system, and moved toward Panpour, as it got closer it hailed,

"This is Draconis Combine jumpship _Ryuken_ to Panpour space traffic control, we seek knowledge about the Shannon family?" its captain queried,

"This is Panpour traffic control if it is the Shannon's you seek they are on the jumpship _Pilgrim_ in high orbit we are forwarding their com frequency now" said the traffic controller,

The _Ryuken_ hailed the _Pilgrim_, Kono who was on the bridge at the moment preparing the ship for hyperspace jump, was notified of the hail and answered; the screen flickered as usual before he saw a quite beautiful woman with oriental features that looked like she may have been in her mid twenties appeared,

"_What the hell are dracs doing here_?" he thought curiously

"AH! Konichiwa, My name is Lieutenant Akiko Takeda, and I seek Lieutenant Ben Shannon, is he on your ship?" the young woman asked politely in somewhat accented English,

"I'm Lieutenant Kono Lao second officer of the _Pilgrim_,_ Yes_ he's onboard; may I ask what your business with him is?" Kono asked suspiciously but also polite,

"My father once met him in combat in the war of 3039, may I come aboard?" Akiko asked politely

"I have to ask my captain, if you can wait?" Kono answered and Akiko nodded,

"_THIS should be interesting_?" Kono thought amused, and called Jim on the intercom,

"Jimmyboy there's a Kuritan jumpship with a passenger asking to come aboard?" Kono asked smirking when he heard Elisabeth's voice in the background telling Jim to sit still,

"We don't know any _dracs_?" Jim asked perplexed

"She says she knows Ben, shall I give her clearance to board?" Kono asked, there was some silence on the other end, Kono almost felt as if he could hear the cogs working in Jimmyboy's head, and could hear Jim saying something in welsh most likely to Ben,

"_Must've been really surprised, Jimmyboy usually don't speak welsh even to Bennyboy_" Kono thought, when he heard Jim and Ben's native language,

"Okay tell her she can come over" Jim answered

"Aye aye captain" Kono said mockingly to some grumbling from the other end, about needles and getting poked and pricked

Kono turned back to the com,

"Okay Lieutenant tell your captain he may dock in the aft airlock as you can see our regular airlocks are occupied"

"No need Lao san, I shall take my aerospace fighter over, can you open a suitable bay for me to land in?"

"Sure thing, you are cleared to land in bay two, don't mind the sparks coming from the door they are not an attempt to attack ya" Kono said jokingly, and was answered by a raised eyebrow,

After a few minutes a Kuritan designed _Sai _aerospace fighter was flying towards the _Pilgrim_ and landed in the second hangar bay, Jim, Kono and Ben waited in the bay as its pilot disembarked her craft and walked up to them, and bowed, of the four only Ben and Akiko was dressed in uniforms unlike Jim who was dressed in cargo pants a shirt and a brown leather jacket and Kono who were dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and a black vest,

"Captain James Shannon san, I am honored to finally meet the brother of Benjamin Shannon" she greeted Jim who looked curiously at her then Ben

"Why thank you, but I'd like to know why you are here?" he asked

"If you will have me I am here to join you wherever you may go to fulfill my debt of honor to Benjamin san" Akiko said and looked at Ben and smiled who smiled back at her and nodded

"Jim I can vouch for her, she's one of the best damn pilots I've ever seen" Ben said knowingly

"Okay we could need some experienced combat pilots" Jim said and extended his hand which she took

"Lieutenant Akiko Takeda daughter of Omi Takeda formerly of the Second Sword of Light, at your service Captain Shannon san" she introduced herself with a beaming smile, and then shook hands with Kono and then with Ben,

"Long time no see Akiko, and please call me Ben" Ben said pleadingly with a wide smile

"Alright Ben san, I shall endeavor to do that" Akiko said and returned the smile, both Jim and Kono looked between them and grinned

"Benny got a girlfriend" Jim sang in welsh which caused Ben to blush heavily and glare at him

"Bite me" he hissed also in welsh

Akiko wondered what it was that the captain had said that seemed to cause Ben such consternation, but decided it was something that did not concern her,

"Well well Jimmyboy, except for you and Bennyboy almost getting barbequed I'd say things are REALLY looking up," Kono stated happily, Jim looked at him puzzled

"What do you mean?" Jim asked

"Well with Bennyboy we've got a militarily experienced MechWarrior and with Lieutenant Takeda we've got a militarily experienced aero jock, heck we could actually start our very own mercenary unit with all the equipment we've got our hands on, what with these two whipping us into shape" Kono stated grinning

Akiko looked at Ben

"What did he mean by that?" she asked

"Oh it's nothing we got into a little scuffle down on the planet" Ben stated

"With YOU nothing is ever a _scuffle_" Akiko stated deadpan

"Let's go find you a room, shall we, we're still getting organized" Ben changed the subject, and Akiko frowned but had a half smile,

As they moved through the ship there were people almost everywhere, there were crews doing checkups of any systems and performing repairs, there were kids running around despite  
being told by their parents not to, Akiko could clearly see this was at present a refugee ship, they were fleeing their home,

"So where are we heading, Ben san?" she asked

"Taurian Concordat, our family came from there originally" Ben explained as he was showing her through the ship sometimes sick sacking through some laughing children playing tag or something similarly innocent seemingly oblivious to the situation they and their families were in,

"I'm really glad you came" Ben then said to her bringing her out of her thoughts,

"Me too Ben san, I'm glad we are now finally on the same side, though it WAS honourable last time" she laughed and he laughed with her.

They were interrupted in their reminiscing by Josh, who nearly ran into them chasing after Kara,

"Oh sorry Uncle Ben, didn't mean to bump into ya like that" Josh said apologetically and glaring playfully at Kara,  
Akiko looked him over, the boy couldn't be more than seventeen or eighteen, he was dressed similarly as the girl, Kara, in a grey flight suit with no officers stripes or even unit insignia, though she saw a few crew members acting as security wearing ordinary clothes with flak jackets with police insignias on them, and they were both greasy from having worked on some machine no doubt

"Ah, I see you've met my son Joshua and his girlfriend Kara Gruffudd, Lieutenant Takeda, they are our resident aero jocks" Jim said as he and Kono caught up to them, Josh wiped his hand on his jumpsuit and stretched forth and Akiko shook it,

"Josh Shannon, call sign Skyfire, I just earned it down on the planet" he said proudly,

"He's also now our only resident Lam pilot" Kono declared, Akiko raised an eyebrow,

"Yeah we sort of found an old Star League cache and found an ancient _Stinger _Lam, among other things, _Skyfire_ here took down two fighters with his old _Sparrowhawk_ and then found the Lam and took down two mechs, enabling me and my brother here to take care of the rest" Jim stated

"I am impressed Joshua san" Akiko said approvingly,

"Since my brother seems to place such trust in you, I would like to offer you the position of operational command of our aerospace assets" Jim asked

"I would be honored Captain san" Akiko answered and bowed

"Well there we have it" Kono said

"Okay, Kara why don't you show the Lieutenant to a room in the officers' quarters, Kono is the ship ready for jump?" Jim commanded

"Yes sir" Kono answered exaggeratingly with a salute, Jim glared at him

"Remember what we talked about I want us to travel at an alternate course so it will make it harder for the Radcliff's to ambush us at every jump point" Jim then continued

"Already plotted Captain Jimmyboy" Kono said with a grin.

Jim and Kono headed off for the bridge while Ben, Akiko, Josh and Kara went off to show Akiko her new quarters,

When they got to the bridge everyone stood at attention, it seemed as if the crew was in high spirits, as even more families had been brought up on the ship according to the manifest there were now over twelvehundred families were crammed in the passenger holds part of who was acting as crew and security personnel,

"Everything is ready for hyperspace jump Captain, there seems to be some special anomaly but instruments show no danger sir" the helmsman reported, Jim nodded and took activated the ships intercom,

"Attention, this is the captain, everyone prepare for hyperspace jump" Jim said into the com, and sat down into the command chair and Kono went to his station and declared:

"Hyperspace jump in. 5….4….3….2….1" but suddenly there were lightning dancing all around the ship causing a lightshow that the people of Panpour would be talking about for years to come, as the _Pilgrim_ disappeared in a giant flash of light, many would say it was probably a misjump, but no debris was ever found, though in a year people of Panpour and so many other worlds throughout the inner Sphere would have far more important things to think about than some refugees heading into the unknown.

It was 3048 one year of calm before the storm.


	4. Pilgrims Hope

**So here's chapter four, I've tried my best NOT to mirror the works of any other writer doing BT crossovers, there's a lot of unfinished Clan Wolverine stories out there this is my own twist.**

Unknown system

Suddenly sparks started flying everywhere in space and then a flash of light, and the _Pilgrim _showed up in the dark, which caused the lone _Vandal_ class clan aerospace fighter on what should have been a routine scout patrol to stop dead in space, and it's pilot to rub the sleep out of his eyes, for a jumpship to appear this far outside of any known shipping lanes was rare especially like this with sparks flying around the engines, the pilot contacted the his superiors on the _Congress _class Frigate _Minnesota_,

"CWS Minnesota, this is Dunham, I'm reporting the appearance of an unknown jumpship in grid sector 13" Dunham reported and while he waited for reply, he decided to scan the ship it looked really old,  
"_maybe it is one of them ships lost in a misjump and trapped in that jump for centuries?_" he wondered, when he was interrupted by his com coming to life,

"Minnesota here, Dunham I swear if this is another one of your hangover stunts, so help me I'll personally have you on latrine duty until the end of this century!" An angry voice declared

"Sir I'm sending my initial scanning data now" Dunham said quickly in order to avoid another yell out from his CO, after a few minutes he was contacted again,

"Have you tried contacting them yet?" The commander of the Minnesota queried,

"Negative star commodore, shall I contact them now?" Dunham queried

"Affirmative, we are sending a dropship and a point of Visigoths as backup just in case they prove to be hostile" Star commodore Brian McEvedy answered

"Sir you better send some medical personnel just in case, the ship seems really banged up, sparks around the engines suggest a misjump, it's a wonder the ship is in one piece"

"We've called for the destroyer Sara to help out, just contact them and see if they are in a talking mood" McEvedy said

"Affirmative Star commodore" Dunham replied

Inside the _Pilgrim_ everything was a mess, a few moments ago they were jumping out of the Panpour system and all the systems went haywire, there where spark flying from the consoles which provided the only light source on the bridge, Jim tried to stand up but felt too delirious from the jump,

"Can I have a damage report anyone?" he demanded, he could see in the dim light that several bridge crew was tangled together,

"Whose hand is this under my butt?" Ensign Tanya Vaishnavi demanded to know

"I'm not sure but I'll try and find out" Kono said half sincere,

Then the lights came on at last and Jim could finally see the full extent of the devastation, except for some mild electrical damage the bridge seemed to be in more or less one piece,

"Damage report" Jim demanded again, Kono managed to drag himself off the floor and pressed a few buttons on his console,

"After the circumstances I'd say we are in surprisingly good shape, from what I can see, all systems except for jump engines seems to functioning at least" he reported

Jim hit the intercom and contacted engineering,

"Captain to engineering, are you there Cronk?" Jim queried, and the reply came soon enough with someone swearing in Scottish, Jim understood though he wished he didn't

"Aye engineering here, chief engineer Cronkite reporting, we're still picking up the pieces down here, plus my dinner is all over the walls" Cronkite growled, "But all in all things look okay, just one question; WHAT THE HELL YOU DOING UP THERE?" he continued bellowing the last,

"We must have had a misjump or something" Jim explained

"OH YOU THINK?" Cronkite blurted out,

"Just see what you can do and give me a report within half an hour" Jim said and cut the com, "_GEEZ he's got a bad temper when he doesn't eat?_" Jim thought, Ensign Vaishnavi who was also Elisabeth's younger sister piped up,

"Captain I'm picking up a hail from another ship just off our starboard bow, I'm patching it through now" she reported, and the com crackled for a while and then

"I repeat this is Clan Wolverine scout patrol aerospace warrior Dunham, to unidentified jumpship do you copy?" Warrior Dunham queried

"This is captain Jim Shannon of the jumpship Pilgrim out of Panpour" Jim answered

"Wow, then I'd say you people if you're telling the truth, have had quite the misjump" Dunham retorted

"We figured as much, can you tell me what system this is? Our navcomputer seems to be malfunctioning, we were supposed to appear at Basantapur" Jim queried

"HO HO! If THAT'S correct then I'd say you are about a thousand light-years off course" Dunham chuckled, Jim was absolutely dumbstruck as was everyone on the bridge even Kono who usually could diffuse any situation with some wisecrack or another looked as if he had just been spaced, several minutes passed and then everyone started arguing of the plausibility of it all,

"QUIET" Jim shouted, and then spoke into the com again

"Look it's a bit too early for April-fools jokes" Jim said annoyed, and then was contacted be Elisabeth who was the ships chief medical officer,

"Jim what happened is everyone okay on the bridge?" she queried worriedly

"I few bumps and bruises nothing serious" Jim answered

"What about the rest" he then asked

"I've been getting reports from all three dropships and it's pretty much the same nothing serious, except people are worried even scared Jim" she answered

"Jim I just got the radar back on line and I'm picking up some dropship transport with what in my book looks like an escort" Kono said apprehensively

Jim motioned for Tanya to again open the com to _aerospace warrior_ Dunham,

"Okay Dunham would you like to explain why there are more ships coming at us?" Jim asked suspiciously,

"We're sending a dropship to check your ship, you have to understand, you show up here uninvited and pretty much unannounced for all we know you could be pirates, and we're also sending some medical people to see if you need any help" Dunham answered sternly

"Look whatever questions you have will have to be taken up with my superiors over and out" he then said and cut the com, Jim turned to Kono,

"What do you think Kono" Jim asked

"Really not much we can do Jimmyboy, those fighters they're sending look mean, the computer won't identify them, and they look advanced, same thing with the dropship" Kono stated, and crossed his arms across his chest.

Moments later the dropship contacted the _Pilgrim,_

"This is Star colonel Victor Guzman of Clan Wolverine dropship Fang we request you prepare for us to send a small party onboard" a voice commanded

"We're being boarded?" Jim queried

"Negative unless you decide to be difficult, we are just sending over a small team to make sure you are alright and see what else we can help with, off course also making sure that you are not pirates" Guzman said, Jim was silent

"Do you have anything more important to do today, query?" Guzman asked when no reply came

"Not that I have much choice but as you can see our docking collars are all occupied so you'll have to use the aft hangar bay, don't worry we won't try anything" Jim confirmed and looked at Kono

"Kono call for Ben and Takeda to meet us in at the aft hangar bay" Jim said, and called Elisabeth on the com,

"Liz can you meet me at the aft airlock and tell the kids to stay in the cabin, we're getting some _guests_" he said and then turned to Tanya "Ensign, you have the bridge" he said

"Yes sir" she responded.

After twenty minutes when a small shuttle craft landed in the bay and six armed soldiers that must have been at least eight feet tall as they had to bend slightly to leave the shuttle, got out followed by some _slightly_ shorter officers and what looked like field medics stepped off the ramp, one off the officers walked up to Jim and his party and saluted before he started speaking,

"I am star colonel Victor Guzman which of you is Jim Shannon?" he asked, Jim noticed even though he was not as abnormally big as the soldiers he was still about seven feet tall,

"I am Jim Shannon and these are my officers; medical officer who is also my wife Elisabeth, Security officer Lieutenant Kono Lao, Operational ground and MechCommander Lieutenant Ben Shannon, and flight commander Lieutenant Akiko Takeda, My chief engineer is Vincent Cronkite but he's in engineering trying to get the ship on her keel again" Jim said and smirked at the term _keel_, some terms had a tendency to stick around even though star ships had no keels,

Guzman nodded to the others and talked to his field medics "Squad commander Ogawa I want you to coordinate with chief medical officer Elisabeth Shannon here and see what you can do to help" Guzman said to the medic and turned to Jim and Elisabeth

"With your approval off course?" he queried, Jim nodded and Elisabeth and the medic and her _squad_ walked away to the infirmary,

"I also brought some engineers with me in since your ship looks like it has seen better days" he continued,

"No problem and thanks" Jim nodded and motioned for a security guard to show the engineers where to go,

"Jones, you show them to engineering, but don't disturb Cronk if he's eating, you KNOW how he gets when he's interrupted during dinner" Jim ordered, smirking

"Yes boss" Jones chuckled

While Captain Shannon were talking to his subordinate, Guzman watched him and his officers and except for _Jim_ and _Kono_ the only officers that looked military was the one called Ben who was dressed and carried himself like a mechwarrior and the young woman called Takeda, _Ben _seemed to have noticed that Guzman was watching and looked back at him with steel grey eyes,  
Jim turned back to Guzman,

"Could you show me to the bridge, I need to contact the CWS Minnesota to let them know everything is working to satisfaction" Guzman asked politely

"CWS Minnesota?" Jim queried

"It's one of our Frigates, it waits further into the system, and we thought it prudent not to come with it as we didn't wish to startle you people" Guzman explained

"Okay err well this way to the bridge" Jim answered guardedly

"_They seem very tense, can't say I blame them after the circumstances_" Guzman thought as he his officers and a couple of his soldiers were led through the ship, he saw a few people scuttling about and their scans had shown that one of the dropships and much of the jumpships passenger areas were filled with people,

"Captain Shannon if I may but it looks as if you and yours are refugees, affirmative?" He asked

Jim nodded "we were leaving our world because of criminal elements controlling the local government, me and my foster brother Kono here used to be cops until we crossed paths with a crime lord named Henry Radcliff one too many times" Jim acknowledged, and Guzman nodded

When they got to the bridge Guzman was showed to the com console and sent a message

"Star colonel Victor Guzman to dropship Fang come in" he said into the com and the screen flickered to life,

"This is Fang, Star captain Joanna Xi here, how is it going over there Star colonel, eaten by the barbarians yet?" a woman with brown hair queried jokingly

"Funny Joanna, things are well with me and my company, it is what we suspected, these people are refugees and seem to be in dire need of help, their ship seems to be broken down but repairable" Guzman answered, and activated his personal com and contacted his engineer team

"Sulk how is things in engineering are the ship at least moveable?" he asked into the com

"The main sub light engines are in moderately working order and should be able to take the ship all the way to home base" Sulk replied

"Good" Guzman commended and cut the com and turned toward Jim

"Do you have a briefing room or something where we can talk?" he then asked

"We have an officers lounge here in the forward section of the ship" Jim answered and added

"Look before you decide on confiscating our ship, I'd like to say that this ship and everything on it is all we own" he said sternly

"I wouldn't worry about that if I were you, though if you'll be allowed to stay on our planet or not is for the Khan to decide" Guzman said calmingly

When they finally got to the officers lounge, with Guzman leaving his subordinate officer on the bridge to pilot the ship to _home base_, Guzman and Jim sat at the briefing table and talked about who they were, and Guzman told of the clans and how Clan Wolverine had to flee to avoid genocide

"So you see we DO have a soft spot for hard luck cases such as yourselves" Guzman, he saw Jim and Kono had a little hard to accept it all,  
so he explained the whole history about the Exodus and later the formation of the clans up until the Wolverine secession and subsequent near annihilation by the son of Alexander Kerensky, Nicholas Kerensky.

After a few hours ensign Vaishnavi reported they were in orbit over what looked very much like a habitable planet,  
When Jim , Guzman and their respective officers got to the bridge Jim and his family gawked at the massive ships that rested in high orbit, Guzman chuckled at their reaction

"And that's WHY we didn't meet you with any of these to begin with" he said and continued

"The smaller one is one of our Congressclass Frigates CWS Minnesota, the large one is the Texas class battleship CWS Wolverine's Claw, other than that we have a few Whirlwind class destroyers like the CWS Hallis that escorted us in, and a few other vessels as well, though many of them have been dismantled for parts over the centuries" Guzman said proudly and then added

"You seem to be getting some more guests" he said as a shuttle craft was leaving the battleship and headed straight for the _Pilgrim_,

Just then Jim noted the band around Guzman's arm as well as on the arms of everyone with him, those that was introduced as _Warrior caste_ anyway,

"Excuse me but that armband, does it have any special meaning" he asked and Guzman looked at him

"Well it has a copy of my lineage, and records everything I do from my first testing in the sibco to my eventual dying oath….IF I have time for that before I die that is" Guzman explained chuckling

Jim wondered what the hell he and his people had gotten themselves into; here they had met up with actual descendants of General Alexandr Kerensky's exiled Star League army, and they were at least over a thousand light years from where they had planned to make their new home.

Jim, Kono and Ben as well as Akiko had gone to the hangar bay to receive the new arrivals and Jim suspected it had to be Guzman's superior possibly this _Khan_ he was talking about, the way Guzman and the other _clan_ people reacted

When the shuttle landed in the bay and its ramp lowered and a man with grey almost white hair and beard and piercing blue eyes stepped out followed by a seemingly young man with short cropped dark hair standing a good seven feet tall even taller than Guzman, Guzman and his party now stood at stiff attention, they were just like Guzman dressed in strange jumpsuit and with the same armband

"At ease Guz and the rest of ya as well before ya embarrass me in front of our guests here" the Man commanded gently and then turned to Jim and smirked

"I'm guessing from the look in your face you didn't expect to find us here or even end up here to begin with?" he said with a small grin

"Not really….err sir" Jim said hesitantly and then straightened up

"Captain James Shannon of the jumpship Pilgrim out of Panpour" Jim said and both he and Kono stood at whatever attention they could along with Ben and Akiko who already stood at attention knowing the drill when a soldier of superior rank no matter who was before them,

"At ease" the man chuckled again

"Well I'm Khan Nathaniel Taylor of Clan Wolverine, and unless you belong to the clan you don't need to salute me, not that I don't appreciate the gesture though" the man Taylor said almost as if it didn't even mean anything,

"May we show you to the officer's mess hall so we can speak about what you plan on doing with us?" Jim asked,

"Rest easy son, we'll see what we can do for your people first" Taylor said and followed Jim

"There's been an awful lot off traffic to the mess hall lately?" Ben mumbled annoyingly, which made Taylor look at him with curious eyes

"Please excuse my baby brother, he's a little tense with strangers" Jim excused and got a glare from Ben at the _baby_ part and Akiko to giggle and place a soothing hand on Ben's shoulder to try and stifle the angry retort he was no doubt preparing to fire off at Jim,

"No need, young warriors are always the most impatient" Taylor said with an amused smile at Ben who looked a little embarrassed at the whole situation.

As they came to the officers mess, and Jim and Taylor plus their respective company entered as Taylor's warrior that accompanied him were about to enter himself when first Zoe came running with Maddy at her heels, Zoe managed with the near miraculous grace that only a small child could ran in between the large warrior and the door and into the mess hall straight for Jim who caught her in his arms, Maddy was NOT as lucky and crashed right into the warrior who looked as surprised as she was,

Maddy fell backwards and landed on her backside and looked up and looked into the most wonderful eyes she had ever seen, they seemed tri colored with blue, grey and green warring for dominance, and he looked down at her a few seconds before he with an embarrassed smile bent down and offered his hand,

"Please forgive me" he said, Maddy noticed his face seemed to be going a bit red, she herself was blushing, as she took his offered hand and he practically hoisted her up which made her squeak loudly,

Both Taylor and Jim was watching the scene unfold and they saw both Maddy and the warrior seemed to be competing about who could go the most red in the face,

"Reynolds, stop bothering the young lady and get in here" Taylor said, Reynolds obeyed after a last look at Maddy who was still blushing and looking at him with wide curious doe-eyes that Reynolds had a real hard time tearing himself from, until Khan Taylor cleared his throat loudly,  
and he took his place behind Taylor as everyone sat down,  
Kara came running no doubt looking for Maddy and Zoe,

"Kara could you be kind and take Zoe back to the cabin, and also make sure to keep Josh inside?" Jim asked, and Kara nodded and took Zoe's hand

"Maddy I need you here to help with things here" Jim then told her, and she nodded and walked up to the table, but before she could even touch the chair, that big warrior Reynolds pulled it out for her and she again blushed as she sat down "_Boys never did this for me at home?_" she thought as she was trying to reign in her blush,

"Let me introduce my eldest daughter Madelyn and my youngest over there" Jim said and pointed first at Maddy and then at Zoe who was unwillingly led back out by Kara, Taylor smiled at Zoe's whining,

"I may have a proposition for you Khan Taylor" Jim said

"What is it?" Taylor asked politely

"Before we left Panpour we raided an old Star League cache, that's when we fought a battle against some bandits in the employ of a planetary criminal" Jim started

"I hope that's not going to be a problem, us raiding a Star League cache?" Jim queried, Taylor chuckled

"Well our ancestors did the same thing when they fled clan space about three hundred years ago so no problem at all, plus the Star League weren't there to complain anyhow, AND I don't see defeating bandits as a crime" Taylor explained

"But please continue" he then said, and Jim continued

"We found a lot of treasures there including what must have been some sort of memory core and we are willing to share any and all knowledge from the core, if you are willing to let us stay on your planet" Jim said with his best poker face,

"You know we could simply take it by force if we wanted to" Taylor stated deadpan

"Then even if it will break my daughters heart we could simply destroy it" Jim also stated deadpan, and Taylor smiled at his determination

"I like that, you are willing to bargain AND you can play hardball if you need to, we will not take it so you do not need to destroy it, but I request you share it with us, though I was about to offer you to stay here anyway, especially since it would take you at least a year to get back to any marginally inhabited systems, and because we know you're carrying refugees so I do not have the heart to send you away" Taylor declared and then extended his hand

"Well do we have a deal then, Captain Shannon?" he then asked, whereupon Jim took his hand and smiled

"Deal" he said

"Well bargained and done" Taylor said.


	5. Welcome to Terra Nova

**Here's chapter five enjoy and thanks to doctor anthony for proof reading it for me.**

**So read and enjoy and leave some reviews.**

After Taylor and Jim had shook hands some crew members came in with refreshments,

"I hope whiskey in plastic bottles will be okay to seal the deal with" Jim excused

"Whiskey is always welcome, but when we get down to the planet, I'll show ya to the bar of a friend of mine" Taylor said approvingly

"I'm looking forward to it" Jim said

"Well I've already made arrangements for the construction of a refugee settlement down on the planet" Taylor said and took a swig of whiskey from his glass and made a throat sound,

"That would be, Cronkite's own brew" Kono laughed, as Reynolds appeared apprehensive but Taylor motioned him to calm down

"Relax Star commander, this stuff was strong, Boylan usually only makes beer and the Scandinavians, especially them _neo-Norse_ only makes mead" Taylor said hoarsely still with a few tears in his eyes,

"Well down to business" Taylor then said, and Jim looked at Maddy

"Well I've only skimmed the contents of the memory core, but I can tell of what I've found; for example there are several design schematics for both industrial as well as battlemechs and alloys and designs for jumpships mostly warships and advanced combat armor for the time of the Star League at least and weapons like PPC's and lasers and small arm lasers and designs for experimental gauss weapons for mechs and warships and missile systems for both infantry and mech and ship alike" Maddy rambled.

Her family was clearly used at her rambling even Ben by now, but both Taylor and Reynolds stared at her, though Reynolds in wonderment, Maddy blushed at the looks she got and the fact that her mouth had once again messed things up for her,

Jim looked at Taylor who looked as if his eyes was about to come out of their sockets, but Reynolds looked admiringly at Maddy,

"Maddy you may have to take things a bit slower, otherwise you risk giving the poor old fellow a stroke or something" Kono blurted out, and got a glare from Jim

"Sorry I think I almost blacked out there for a second" Taylor excused himself

"You are a very educated young lady, Miss Shannon" Reynolds stated and smiled at her without realizing it,

"Affirmative" Taylor stated brightly, and nodded approvingly at Maddy

"Well I think we have covered the memory core bargain then, so here is what we can do now, you and your people can take the dropships to the refugee settlement on the planet, along with anything you may have found, your jumpship will be put in yard dock for EXTENSIVE repairs"

"You'll let us keep the things we found?" Jim asked surprised

"Well as I see it, Firstly; You fought and won the contents of that cache and thereby whatever materiel is Isorla by our laws, your property, secondly I think you people are entitled to some restitution for having had to flee your home world" Taylor declared deadpan

"What is Isorla?" Jim asked

"War price or spoils from the battlefield, something the founder of the clans instituted, if you fight and win something in battle, then it's yours" Taylor said and then continued, "Though we do not follow it as stringently as the Kerensky loyalists do in that we do not claim people as Isorla" he spat,

"General Alexandr Kerensky?" Maddy queried

"No his son Nicholas Kerensky, the founders of our clan didn't really see eye to eye with him so they left….sort of" Taylor explained

"Look I would be more than happy to give you files of the full history from the Exodus to now" he continued.

After some further deliberations Taylor went to his dropship promising to meet them on the planet, leaving Reynolds as a temporary liaison,

When it was time to board the dropships Cronkite refused flatly as he wanted to personally oversee the eventual repairs with a small team of his own engineers, while Jim and his family boarded the _Hope_ and the newly named _Gauntlet_ while the most of the refugees boarded the _Refuge_ and some on the shuttles that Clan Wolverine had sent to ferry them down to the planet,

The dropships of the _Pilgrim_ and Clan Wolverine came down through the atmosphere and landed outside a settlement that looked even though hastily built, there were a few proper houses and some barrack looking buildings, and there were still work crews working on even more housing units,  
when the loading ramp opened Taylor and some of his officers and soldiers were waiting as the families started trickling out of the dropships and started gathering in front of the settlement, where Taylor waited on top of a large podium, everyone was apprehensive as he started to speak with the help of loudspeakers so that they could hear,

"Citizens of the Inner Sphere, you crossed the vast boundary of space and ended up here" his voice boomed over the refugees,

"The area of space you left behind fell victim to some of the baser instincts of humanity, _Greed, power hunger, _and constant_ war_, Us Wolverines left behind something similar as we also over two hundred years ago fled our space, and we decided to rebuild and one day maybe re-create the Star League not the old one but a new and better one where all can be heard, and now you have come here so in a way we are at the dawn of a new civilization….No pressure, but unlike us you came here with little more than the clothes on your back, so Clan Wolverine salutes you, Welcome to Terra Nova folks" he finished and started clapping his hands and his soldiers and officers joined in and soon even the refugees started applauding as well,  
Jim looked around and saw something on the faces of the refugees he hadn't seen in months….Hope.

As they were showed to the various houses by both soldiers and laborers they could see that more equipment was brought to the settlement clearly with the intent on building roads, at the moment the streets were little more than gravel roads, Jim and his family were showed to where they was to live by that giant of a young man Reynolds that to Jim's annoyance kept shooting glances at Maddy and vice versa to his even more consternation, to a nice house almost in the middle of the settlement.

While Ben, Kono, Akiko and the former police officers now turned security stayed with the _Hope _and the _Gauntlet_, Josh of course wanted to stay with as Kara so teasingly said _his True love_ referring of course to his _Stinger_ LAM, but was ordered by his father to accompany the rest of his family to the settlement,

"I'm going to make sure everyone gets _home_ and then I'll come back" Jim said, but Kono shook his head

"No Jimmyboy you go and be with your family, you can come back in the morning with some guys and relieve us, and we'll stay and guard the dropships with all the loot" Kono stated calmly

"You're all sure about this?" Jim queried

"He's right sir, most of us here have no families to speak off, you could scrounge up some militia volunteers tomorrow to come and relieve us, so you be with your family sir, you've done so much for us in the past anyway" a security guard stated deadpan, Jim simply nodded tiredly in thanks to them all and followed his family.

As the families and single people were entering the actual settlement they were assigned housing units depending on the size of their families, many of the single men and women were housed at the barrack like buildings while the families were showed to their houses by the many guides.

The next day when Ben woke up by someone knocking on the hatch to his mech he grabbed his laser pistol, and opened the hatch and there was Akiko standing on the deck outside with a couple of mugs of what from the smell could only be coffee, she waved one mug under his nose and when he was about to grab it she teasingly pulled the mug back with a smile,

"No Benjamin san you come out of there and join me downstairs" she demanded still smiling mischievously, Ben grumbled annoyingly at her but followed her out of the mech bay and out on the ramp of the dropship and outside on the grass field, Ben could see people in jumpsuits with boxes and some field kitchen making more coffee and he could also see a long line of vehicles going into the settlement,

"What's all this?" he queried curiously, and Akiko turned to him

"Relief supplies" she answered deadpan, and then Ben noticed Kono's Urbanmech standing just outside the dropship with Kono and a few clan technicians examining it, he walked up to them,

"And I had these extra powerful jumpjets installed so instead of 120 meters it can jump 150" Kono declared proudly, Ben just had to chuckle at that

"Yeah and one of these days those things are going to go kablooie on ya and you'll end up with 30 tons of mech up your ass" Ben chuckled which earned him a small glare from Kono, the clan Wolverine technicians had some trouble understanding the joke as Akiko who did laughed together with some of the militia,

"Well I'm asking these guys if they can install similar jumpjets on my new Starslayer mech" Kono retorted, and that's when Ben noticed a quite beautiful woman with almost golden skin and black hair in a ponytail dressed in those cooling suits the other Wolverine mechwarriors had been wearing walking up to them, and that huge mechwarrior from the day before….Marcus Reynolds or something,

"Which one of you two are in charge with your _militia_" She asked more or less respectfully,

"I'm second in command so I guess that's me, but Ben here is operational ground and MechCommander" Kono stated, and the woman nodded at him and turned to Ben,

"I am SaKhan Alicia Washington, Captain Shannon said you may need some repair work on your mechs, so as you can see we sent some of our technicians since your own chief technician seems reluctant to leave the ship" she offered, Kono laughed and she looked at him less than amused,

"Cronk has spent most of his life on jumpships, so he doesn't like being on planets more than necessary" Kono chuckled,

"And Kahn Taylor also thought since your people are a bit wary of ours he decided that you should form your own militia like you did before you came, we are here to help with any training and equipment" she stated and added,

"I also heard that you may have found some military equipment in the Star League cache as well?" she asked deadpan

"Yeah we found some old party favors" Kono stated and made a motion of holding a rifle and winked at her, Washington just raised an eyebrow at him,

"We found some mechs and some small arms" Ben explained, trying to defuse whatever Kono was up to but too late,

"By the way toots, you free tonight?" Kono asked Washington who looked at him and there was the slightest of smirk on her lips, it should have stayed at that but then Kono put his arm around Washington's shoulders.

"Watch and learn how you score with the ladies kid" Kono said smugly at Ben

Washington elbowed Kono in the chest and grabbed his arm and threw him over so he landed on his back and then straddled his chest pinning him to the ground and giving him a view that most men probably wouldn't mind….normally,

"Wow you're good" Kono said in awe up at Washington who smirked at him and got off and stood up, letting Kono get up on his own, at Ben's snickering and Kono glared at him, and dusted himself off,

"Well I'd like to do some mild combat exercises with depowered lasers and the like" Ben requested

"Okay, then let's see what you got" Washington said

"Okay Kono see if you can bring that Starslayer out of the Gauntlet and call up Jim and those who are at least knowledgeable in mech piloting among the security or militia" Ben said

Said and done, about forty minutes later Ben could hear Kono cheering when marching his _Starslayer_ down the ramp of the _Gauntlet_, and when Ben walked his _Axman_ down the ramp of the _Hope _got some curious looks from the Clan warriors and technicians when they saw the axe, and awed himself when Jim walked the massive _Atlas_ they had also found down the ramp of the _Gauntlet _humming _Ride of the valkyries_ on the com, and a security guard from the Pilgrim regulars as the unit of the _Pilgrim_ were named, walked Kono's _Urbanmech_, but what really got the Wolverines attention was when Josh flew his _Stinger _LAM out of the bay of the _Gauntlet_ and before landing converted it to its mech form,

Several of the clan technicians came up and asked Josh questions about how it worked and some of the clan mechwarriors asked how it felt to pilot such a mech, and some even came up to Ben asking about the ax on his mech,

"It's a melee mech" Ben explained to the astonished Wolverines.

Mark Reynolds had never been truly interested in girls; he was a mechwarrior of Clan Wolverine after all and a Star Commander of one of its elite units, there was simply never any time for it plus other than fellow mechwarriors he had been approached by civilian women or girls including Star Colonel Guzman's daughter Tasha but he had turned them all down,  
And now this young girl Madelyn Shannon had simply ran into him on that wreck of a jumpship off theirs, and he had had trouble tearing his eyes from her beautiful almost amber like ones, and then when she had given that explanation that almost _according to himself anyway_ had Khan Taylor blacking out, Mark was truly impressed by her knowledge and yet there was a certain innocence in her eyes, with her raven black hair falling in loose curls around her head,

"_What the hell is wrong with me I am usually a lot more collected than THIS_?" he thought as he was walking up the steps to the Shannon house porch, the settlement that had been constructed was simple a few barracks and a number of housing units for families, most had not even been given proper doors inside or painted yet,

"_Maybe I could help her out…help THEM out_?" he thought again and shook his head violently annoyed with himself over daydreaming like this, he reached the door and stood there for a while looking over his cooling suit and everything seemed to be in order, and knocked on the door, he waited for a moment and then the door opened to reveal young Madelyn Shannon who stood there for a long while staring up at him,

"Hey, w….w….what are you doing here?" she stumbled over her words, she looked amazing this day, she was wearing a pale red sundress that reached to just below her knees and she had her hair tied up in some simple yet intricate style in a half bun but letting it fall over her shoulders and black as the space between the most distant stars, NOT that Mark was actually examining her THAT close, though he had to look downwards because of the height difference, his fellow mechwarriors would call her a midget since Clan Wolverine mechwarriors measured usually well over six feet tall Mark was among the tallest ones at seven feet, off course even he would be considered short compared to the Clan infantry with at least a feet taller, it was an open joke among the clan members even those that did not come out of the breeding program that when Clan Wolverine wanted perfection they almost went overboard, off course not like with the Kerensky loyalist clans in the Kerensky cluster and the Pentagon worlds who took genetic perfection a bit too far,

"Hey I….I was wondering if you have everything you need?" Mark stammered

"Yes thank you, though there was the matter of your history files I wanted to examine but that's not important I guess I mean as soon as I manage to connect to whatever main network you have I will be able to access it whenever I want to with my plex pad so there's really no problem at all though there would be nice with a computer terminal but I understand that it would have to come later" Maddy rambled and then took a slight breath, Mark looked at her in wonderment

"_She is absolutely PERFECT_!" he thought and stood there dumbstruck like some drunken moronic clan infantry slob in a bar.

Maddy was absolutely awestruck by this large mechwarrior and just now when he seemed to watch her like that she could get a closer look at his eyes….they were beautiful they seemed tricolored with grey, green and blue battling it out, and he was gorgeous as well with the body of Adonis himself, NOT that Maddy was examining him quite THAT close but she had to crane her neck when trying to look over his shoulders he was incredibly muscled and well built,

"_OH MY GOD! He is PERFECT_!" she thought now realizing she had to breathe which was a little awkward,

JUST then her mother had to come to the door when she saw it was the clan liaison officer she smiled at him,

"Well hello there, you are the liaison officer Star Commander….?" She started

"Marcus Reynolds, you do not need to use the rank, I was only wondering if there are anything you need, but your sister here said it was largely okay" Mark started and then the look on Doctor Shannon's face told him he just screwed up when she started laughing,

"Oh this is my oldest daughter Madelyn" Elisabeth laughed and Reynolds started blushing

"Aha then I am truly sorry Doctor Shannon, I thought you looked a little young to have a daughter at ….err….this err age!" Mark stumbled over himself trying to salvage the situation but something told him by her wide smile and Madelyn's blushing face he failed miserably at it,

Elisabeth had to try and at least minimizing her laughter before doubling over, she liked this young man though very big he couldn't be more than a couple of years older than Maddy,

"_No boys ever showed her any interest before, and he seems very nice as well_" she thought amusingly knowing her husband would freak out at the prospect of his little princess interested in boys especially as big and gorgeous as this one,

"Why don't you come in sweetheart and please you may call me Elisabeth" she invited, and could see him blushing at the endearment and smiled even more at him,

Mark walked inside after Elisabeth had gently nudged her out of the way so he could get by,  
off course Mark didn't think of his height and the doors height and knocked his head into the doorpost and put his hand on his forehead gave an embarrassed smile at them,  
Elisabeth couldn't help herself as she had to fight the urge to first giggle at the way the large mechwarrior seemed to stumble around and almost laughed out loud when Maddy stretched her hand up to touch the young man's brow,

"You okay? You're not hurt are you?" Maddy asked worriedly as she reached up to gently put her hand over where she could already see a red mark after the doorpost,

"Look I am fine, I am kind of hard headed so there is no harm at all" Mark said and gently took her hand _almost_ accidentally rubbing it gently and smiled at her and Maddy before she could stop herself beamed a smile up at him,

"Please let me look at it" Elisabeth said and looked at Mark's forehead

"This doesn't look that bad but let Maddy clean it just to be on the safe side" she continued and motioning for Maddy to get the med kit, Maddy did so but gave her mother a puzzled look,

"Well you need to learn on how to dress a wound however small" Elisabeth explained deadpan

"Here sit down please" she said as she motioned for Mark to sit down on one of the chairs at the table, furniture had been donated by the Wolverines, and Mark did as he was told

Elisabeth watched as Maddy gently washed the slight red mark on Reynolds's forehead,  
"_a poor ruse_"she thought "_But now Maddy get to learn AND she gets to meet a boy too_" she continued thinking, it was more than obvious that this man _Marcus_ was interested in her since he was missing out the little combat exercise outside the settlement every mechwarrior she had ever met….well every boy would never miss out on such a spectacle, instead he would rather come here and ask if they needed anything and now the looks both he and Maddy were shooting each other the occasional glance.

When Maddy was finished with the rather lengthy treatment of Reynolds's _wound_, he stood up trying not to look imposing with his hands behind his back,

"I like to ask if you ladies would like to accompany me to the exercise outside the settlement?" he asked courteously

"I WANT TO SEE YES!" Zoe who just got up from bed came running but this time she was too bleary eyed to see exactly where she was going and crashed right into Mark's legs and when she realized what she had done she looked up at him with big eyes,

"Are you a giant?" she asked

"A giant?" Mark asked

"My friend Nina says there are giants and you are very big so you must be one" Zoe stated confidently, Mark laughed

"And what if I were?" he queried crossing his arms on his chest and smiled

"Zoe how many times do I have to say there are NO giants" Maddy said annoyed, but Zoe ignored her

"She says that giants eat little children" Zoe asked unsure of herself but still stood and looked up at Mark innocently

"Is eating children a delicacy on your planet?" Mark asked in mock confusion and kneeled down to Zoe's level

"Off course not mister err _giant_" Zoe explained

"You can call me Mark" Mark said

"I'm Zoe" Zoe introduced herself

"And you are sure that children are not a delicacy?" Mark asked in mock sincerity

"You're silly Mister Mark" Zoe stated before she was taken away to her room by Maddy in order for her to get dressed

"I'm terribly sorry about her this is the first time she's ever been away from our planet plus since having a third child is unusual on Panpour, so we were ostracized because it is usually only the elite that have more than two children and even then" Elisabeth explained and Mark's jaw dropped, admittedly he knew very little about the Inner Sphere other than general knowledge but to be socially outcast because of having a third child made him upset

"I can assure you Doctor Shannon that here on Terra Nova it is actually considered a service to the clan and society in general to have at LEAST three children, and then there are the families that take on the genetic children from the eugenics program, get even more perks" Mark explained deadpan

"The eugenics program?" Elisabeth queried

"Well I do not know how the science cast do it, but I for example came out of what we call an ironwomb it means that they took DNA from either living people or from out gene bank and then genetically improve and remove any bad traits, and then either placed into a sibco or placed with a family depending what their purpose" Mark explained

"So you were MADE to be large and….bulgy?" Elisabeth asked

"Well let me just say that they made it easier for me to develop more muscle mass than one born randomly through normal birth"

"They really did a good job then" Elisabeth said

"The infantry guys are larger" Mark stated, Elisabeth's eyebrows shot up

"Dare I even ask how much?" she asked

"Add another feet to their height for starters" Mark stated, Elisabeth looked him over from top to bottom,

"Better not tell that to Zoe or her friend Nina just yet" Elisabeth stated and Mark laughed

"What's a sibco?" Maddy asked as she and Zoe came out of their room

"A sibling company, I was raised in one myself, they become ones brothers and sisters" Mark explained as if it was the most natural thing in the universe, and both Elisabeth and Maddy stared at him as if he just grew a second head

"So you were raised in an orphanage" Zoe asked, she had heard about children on Panpour that had lost or been abandoned by their parents and immediately felt sorry for poor Mister Mark and walked up and hugged him as best she could, though he seemed surprised at their reaction

As they were leaving the settlement and headed for the field where the exercise were to be held as Maddy just couldn't drop that about the _sibco_

"Mister Reynolds, you said you were raised in a sibco, and what exactly did you mean by _purpose_?"

"You see Miss Shannon; I was bred with a purpose as a mechwarrior and put into a sibling company together with other would be future mechwarriors"

"Would be?" Maddy queried

"Starting at age 10 we undergo several tests mostly physical to determine if we are strong enough and resilient enough, those who fail the more crucial tests is put into the second line reserves"

"So you never had a real childhood?" Maddy asked despondently horrified that any society would do this to a child

"I WAS made to become a mechwarrior, but that does not mean I am not free to have a normal family of my own, though depending on my success as a warrior I may be allowed to contribute to the eugenics program with my own genes" Mark said proudly

"_Then he is on the market at least_!" Maddy thought

"It feels very cruel to do that to a child" Maddy said now feeling some moist behind her eyes

"I understand it may sound a bit harsh to you but we have to have as good warriors as we can if we are going to defend this world and eventually go back and teach those other clans a lesson" Mark declared,

"And how do you feel about having your own children someday Mister Reynolds?" Maddy queried trying to hide her hopefulness

"I love kids and I would love to have a few of my own, once I find a woman who would want me" Mark said

"_Who WOULDN'T want HIM?_" Maddy thought and started blushing at her trail of thought

"Oh and Miss Shannon, you may call me Mark"

"Thank you Mister Reynolds….I mean Mark you can call me Maddy"

When they got the field they could see the mechs they originally brought with them plus the new ones they found in the cache as they were tested, and Jim had put on the loudspeakers as he was piloting the _Atlas_ battlemech while humming and whistling the _Ride of the valkyries_ and Josh was obviously showing off, which made Elisabeth and Maddy roll their eyes at their antics, while Kono was merrily parading his _Starslayer_ around firing at practice targets, Ben was showing how to deploy his _Axman_'s _hatchet_ at a practice target and the clan people were impressed, a girl with curly dark blonde hair stood beside Mark and Maddy and nodded appreciatively

"That _hatchet_ weapon if it were made of a better alloy and enhanced with vibro technology it might potentially do a lot more damage" she said

"You know there was something about more advanced vibro technology on the memory core" Maddy blurted out before thinking, and Mark got a bit lost when both girls started talking about different alloys and other technical…._stuff_,

"My name's Madelyn Shannon but you may call me Maddy" Maddy introduced herself

"Master-Technician Skye Tate of Clan Wolverine, but you may call me Skye since we're going to be best friends forever" the girl Skye introduced herself and offered her hand to Maddy which took it and they shook hands smiling,

"And I see you have already met and claimed Star Commander Marcus Reynolds" Skye said with a mischievous grin that made Maddy blush all over and quickly look over at Reynolds who were talking to her uncle Ben, it seemed as if he didn't hear what Skye said,

"I don't know what you're meaning" she said trying to sound as if she really didn't but Skye just laughed

"Maddy it is all over you two, he keeps looking at you with that dreamy look in his face and you keep doing the exact same thing, I am quite sure you could claim him as Isorla and he would agree to it" Skye stated,

"No he can't be interested in me….could he?" Maddy said unsurely, and Skye looked at her confused

"Why are you so unsure of yourself? You are the first girl I have even seen him talk to in such a manner" Skye said

"And there is nothing wrong with your appearance quite the opposite I should say, and you do take some pride in it yes?" she continued

"If you were a member of the clan you would most likely have the entire science cast begging to have a sample of your DNA" she continued again

"My DNA?" Maddy asked a bit worried

"For the gene bank off course, so one day they could actually get someone with your looks and intelligence" Skye explained, Maddy looked horrified

Maddy saw that Jim had now dismounted his new _toy_ and were smooching with Elisabeth she loved that her parents after almost twenty years still loved each other, she walked up to them making sure no one else was near,

"Mom, Dad, How do you know if a boy likes you?" she asked quickly before losing her nerve walking around her parents

"You can't" Jim started and turned to where Maddy had just moved from, and started turning again after her, "He doesn't" he continued "What boy?" and then finally found where she had stopped standing beside her mother

"You're only sixteen" Jim then finished as if that was all.

**That was that chapter so please give me some reviews so I can potentially get better!**


	6. Plans Within Plans

….Early 3048 Terra system secret session….  
….A month later….

Primus Maxwell Adams was NOT happy as he sat waiting for that idiot Radcliff to arrive and smoking on his cigar, he scowled when there was some knocking on the carved double doors to the conference hall and blew out a puff of smoke,

"Come in" he ordered, and one of his aides came in,

"They are here now Primus" the aide said

"Good send them in; have that jackass Radcliff showed up yet?" Adams queried

"Yes sir" the aide answered and left after a bow

Then a group of men and women entered the members of the _Shadow Circuit_ within ComStar, Primus Adams let them seat themselves before he spoke,

"So everyone is here except Radcliff" Adams started before he was interrupted by the door opening again and Henry Radcliff leader of the Roma One mafia leisurely walked in as if he were in no hurry at all followed by his daughter Tashaya

"Your tardiness insults this very council Radcliff" a bald black man said angrily

"Not at all Malema, I am just in time" Henry said while he nonchalantly took his seat

"Though I do have some rather grave news, my mercenaries failed to claim the cache on Panpour" he then said

"WHAT?" Adams bellowed

"You were tasked with finding that damn cache and preventing anyone else from gaining entry to it" a woman with graying hair in a black business suit snarled,

"And your so called mercenaries are little more than bandits you use to guard your many slave camps" the bald black man said,

"It would have been an easy success for me if it had not been for that upstart brother of his" Henry said annoyed

"Who is this _brother_ then?" Malema queried

"Probably a nobody, worked with some insignificant mercenary outfit" Adams declared, Radcliff almost face palmed himself at the man's utter incompetence

"If you call the Crescent Hawks insignificant then yes" he instead said sarcastically

"Well I may have some good and semi bad news" the woman with graying hair said

"Get on with it director" Adams barked and the woman obeyed

"You may remember years ago we sent two deep exploration jumpships into the rimward far periphery" she started, the others nodded vaguely

"Well we first lost all contact with one of them five months after they had left the Marian Hegemony space, but before they lost all contact the other ship received transmission from the first ship saying they were being boarded by soldiers with this symbol" she said and pressed a button on her console showing a hologram of two symbols one was of a terran black wolverine on white background and claw marks, the other everyone recognized all too well it was of the north American region known as _Minnesota_ with the number 331, Adams stood up

"The _Minnesota tribe_?" he asked hesitantly

"But they disappeared at least two centuries ago" Malema blurted out

"Apparently they simply left the Inner Sphere, and ended up all the way out there" Henry said with a smile

"Exactly, the remaining ship was about to return when they were contacted by the leader of a group of dissidents in a neighboring system, and he told them some stories about this _Minnesota Tribe_" the director said calmly,

"Apparently their real name is Clan Wolverine basically they were part of a society that are the descendants of General Alexandr Kerensky's exiled Star League army" she continued

"The old SLDF vanished three hundred years ago" Adams exclaimed

"Not vanished simply left, they went into exile" the director corrected

"So the SLDF has colonized a planet in beyond the deep periphery big deal!?" Adams snorted

Once again Henry felt the urge to go over to him and smack Adams in the head, but calmed himself

"What is the name of these dissidents and their leader?" he asked

"They are called Sixers by this _clan_ after the sixth deadly sin" the director said calmly

"Gluttony?" Adams blurted, Henry rolled his eyes

"No Envy" Henry said struggling with his annoyance at Adams's complete lack of knowledge,

"Why Envy?" Malema queried

"He didn't say, but he DID say that the clan has technology that is far more advanced than anything we may have, so we sent another ship to act as a signal booster" the director continued

"And just the other day we received a message that I DO think you may find interesting Radcliff" she said with a look at Henry who frowned

"What?"

"Little over three weeks ago a jumpship appeared in the _Terra Nova_ system and it was named the Pilgrim" she finished and Henry could felt his hand grip around the end of the table until he snapped a piece of it off,

"What is it Radcliff, you look positively spooked?" Adams taunted, Henry silently berated himself for showing off his emotion in front of them,

"When my people searched the cache they found evidence of a memory core….a _BIG_ one that may have technological knowledge from the very height of the Star League" He retorted

"THAT might put their tech level on par most likely above that of ComStar" Malema hissed out

"The _Sixers_ also reported on an enormous amount of germanium in the systems not just _Terra Nova_ but in most of the surrounding systems as well" the director said

"So this is what we must do, first we send enough of a force there to wipe that _Clan Wolverine_ out, and then strip-mine the place" Adams said

"Primus Adams if I may, we don't need to strip-mine it there's enough germanium for us to truly expand our fleets so that we no longer need to play off the Great houses against each other anymore, if we also capture the memory core, we will have even greater technology advantage than before" the director said

"We could steamroll the entire inner Sphere, after all they may have greater armies but what good would that be if they lack the proper naval power to deploy them!?" Henry said smugly

"I propose we send a full battle group together with one of our new Yard ships, and a large army to conquer them" Malema said

"Well Mister Radcliff, the _Sixers_ talked about this clan being divided into a sort of caste system with a warrior caste, plus if we wipe them out as Primus said then how are we going to mine the germanium" the director asked, and Henry simply smiled devilishly

"I think I may have an answer to both that and the army, first the _work force_ I can have at least three hundred thousand slaves ready from Panpour, as for the army my own security army could do nicely as a start" Henry said

"What those bandits you who couldn't even take care of an ex cop and his family?" Adams leered at him

"True I was un-prepared but I can have tens of thousands of these bandits willing to join up if the reward is good enough"

"But if we equip them with materiel not to mention our ships, how can we trust these bandits?" Malema queried

"We send a few of our most trusted operatives including Weaver to run the mining operations and Victor to keep an eye on them all, but this has to be done completely off the books" Henry said sternly

"All right then what shall we name this battle group?" Adams asked

"Well if this is successful then it will eventually mean the rebirth of the Star League under ComStar rule so why not name it the _Phoenix Group_?!" Henry said again feeling smug at Adams lack of words,

"_Adams is fast reaching the end of his usefulness, perhaps it will soon be time for a change in leadership of ComStar, when I have crushed this pathetic little remnant of the Star League and Shannon and all his male family lies dead maybe a change in HOW the new Star League shall be run, Amaris thought himself an emperor why not the Radcliff family becoming a dynasty as well_" Henry thought amused.

"We should send someone more than that fool Weaver, Victor is good but his idealism COULD be a hindrance" Malema stated

"Victor is as loyal as they come" Adams stated

"I myself and my daughter shall accompany the group to oversee thing with some of my personal mercenaries and I propose we put Nicholas Smythe in command and promoting him to commander, he also has a reason to want to follow" Henry grinned

"And I propose we put the leader of these Sixers in what may be left of the population on Terra Nova as a puppet, to keep them happy for as long as we may need them" Malema said

"Now what is the name of their leaders then" Adams queried

"The man we were contacted by called himself Lucas Taylor and he is the son of the ruler of Clan Wolverine" the director answered.

"To transport that many slaves it will take a lot of jumpships with enough provisions only to keep them fed, and where are you going to take these slaves from?" Malema said

"From Panpour of course, there are some small towns with all those annoying Welsh and neo Norse people that all but refuse to speak much more than that gibberish they call languages and keep practicing those heretical religions of theirs plus quite a few Indians" Henry added, which made Malema roll his eyes at Radcliff's extremism, he was himself a follower of his ancestral religion and didn't really care what faiths other peoples had as long as they would obey what he told them.

Said and done a massive fleet was being gathered at locations all along the periphery borders, while a message was sent to the Sixers to prepare some preliminary camps to house the hundreds of thousands of new slaves that would be arriving for a new and most likely short life.

Radcliff mused to himself at what he would do when he found the Shannon's,

"_I sincerely hope the Shannon women are fine, I wonder if Elisabeth remembers me at all after all these years._" He thought when a man walked up to him and saluted, he might have been considered handsome if not for the scars in his face that left his nose almost a stump,

"Ah there you are, I have been waiting for you, as you have served me well over the years I shall give you another task that I KNOW will also be a gift for you" Radcliff said and handed the scared man a small holo projector which the man activated it and what he saw was the most exquisite beauty he had ever seen, she had long raven black hair that fell at least half way down her spine and a quite curvaceous figure for her youthful appearance,

"Your task will be to kill Benjamin Shannon; your gift will be that girl

"Her name?" the man said with a raspy British accent

"Madelyn Shannon she is very intelligent for her age and I shall give her to you plus you get to become my partner old friend" Radcliff answered

"How old is she then?" the scared man's interest were now piqued and he smiled slightly as he licked his lips

Radcliff grinned "She is sixteen years old, so she should be right up your alley, but of course you will have to take care of her after all she is a _lady_ AND the niece of your old enemy Benjamin Shannon" he said and laughed, and the scared man started chuckling himself,

"_Quite the precious morsel this one, maybe I shall keep her and make her truly mine? AFTER I kill Ben Shannon!_" he thought and touched his scars

"And what's this about a promotion then Henry?" he then asked

"Oh silly me I forgot, I am hereby promoting you to commander of the Phoenix Army" Henry said magnanimously

"Then I accept old friend" the scared man said with a less than kind smile

"Congratulations then Commander Smythe" Henry said and shook his old friends hand and both laughed, they had both been planning this for years waiting for the perfect opportunity, true revenge was also important and they both intended to enjoy it to the fullest.

**And finally good old Smythe makes his entrance. Thanks again to doctor anthony for proof reading this for me. And I'd really like some review with some good solid input.**


	7. Trial of Courtship

**Thanks to doctor anthony for helping me write this chapter since I had a severe case of writers block!**

At the refugee settlement which had temporarily been named _Hope's landing_ after the name of the dropship that made touchdown first from the _Pilgrim_,

Kono whistled as he headed to the mess hall with his dinner and he smiled when he saw Maddy and Zoe were playing snakes and ladders in the mess hall while Josh was doing some reading.

Kono sat next to them and spent the next hour having fun with his nieces and nephew when they left to get much needed sleep he didn't notice Alicia Washington nearby who said "You really care for those kids of Shannon don't you Kono?"

Kono turned to face her and said "Jim and me were partners in the police for a long time; we saved each other's lives many times. His family is my family. Make no mistake about it, if anyone who wants to hurt them. They'll have to go through me, and they're going to have to go and beat me to death if they want to harm them. Especially Maddy or little Zoe"

Alicia sat down next to him and Kono took a few deep breaths as he remembered something from the past, an incident Maddy had after school when she was nearly attacked by members of the football team, unfortunately for them Kono had been shadowing Maddy to make sure she got home safe. One of the attackers would up in a coma for a week and the others had missing teeth and various broken bones, and were given a stern warning to stay away.

Kono began telling her about the first time they actually managed to arrest Radcliff

*Flashback*

Kono and Jim entered the restaurant and the guards said "No weapons allowed in here."

An elderly man spoke up "its ok Johnny. Let them in."

As the guards did as instructed the two detectives headed over to the main table where the man they were here to see Henry Radcliff was having his lunch. Radcliff said "What can I do for you detectives today. Do you want some steak, it's very good?"

Kono said "No thanks Mr. Radcliff last night Sergio Salazar was found dead and a shipment of his drugs went missing. We found evidence that points us in your direction. Mr. Radcliff I'm going to make this clear. Give up the drugs and we'll put in a good word for you with the District Attorney. Don't and you'll spend 20 years in jail."

Radcliff smiled and said "You know funny things evidence disappears all the time, witnesses forget and I am a very influential man detective. And I pay very well for loyalty from the police department. Plus Mr. Shannon you wouldn't want your lovely little wife Elizabeth to end up in my mansion as my new maid would you now along with your daughter Maddy, I believe her name is?"

Jim kept his cool and said "We don't play that game Mr. Radcliff. Now put your hands behind your back, you're under arrest for drug smuggling, and threatening an officer of the law"

As they arrested Radcliff he said "You'll regret this detectives."

*Flashback ends*

"So how come this Radcliff didn't just rot in jail then?" Alicia asked bringing Kono out of his thoughts

"What?" he queried

"Well we couldn't make the charges stick so he walked" Kono replied, Alicia's eyebrows shot up

"But he verbally threatened a police detective?" Alicia asked gob smacked

"Well he had the government and the police in his back pocket already by then" Kono explained,

"The inner Sphere seems to have fallen farther than we thought then" Alicia hissed to herself

"Could I offer you some dinner perhaps?" Kono offered

Alicia rolled her eyes and smirked

"You may Lieutenant" she answered

And so he did, as they were eating their dinner Ben came walking or rather getting dragged inside by Lieutenant Takeda and he seemed to be in a foul mood, he hadn't even noticed his nieces yet and right after them came a rather diminutive little man nagging on Ben and it was clear to everyone in the mess hall that HE were the one that seemed to make Ben annoyed,

"NO" Ben stated

"But all we wish to do is have one of the clans mechwarriors try your mech, I am not saying that we want to impound it" the little man said with extra sharpness on the last words, Ben stopped dead in his tracks and spun around,

"_OH SHIT, THAT was a mistake to even imply a threat to take his mech_" Kono thought as he knew that his mech was his life after all since the appearance of the Wolf's Dragoons in the Inner Sphere mercenary mechwarriors were fiercely protective of their mechs,

Ben narrowed his eyes at this little leprechaun of a man with that annoyingly "High and mighty" accent and fixed him with a murderous glare,

"NOW You LISTEN you little leprechaun, the _only_ way you will _ever_ have my mech is when or IF you can pry it's controls out of my cold dead hands, is THAT clear?" Ben growled menacingly

"And might I remind you _mercenary_, that it was and still is by the kindness of Clan Wolverine that you and your _people_ are even allowed on this planet, and we don't think highly of mercenaries here either" the little stated man that from what Kono could see must be from that _Science cast_ of Clan Wolverine

"And I don't think at all about small bugs like you in ANY way" Ben growled at him and took a step closer just as a pair of those giants they called Infantry stomped into the mess hall and flanked the scientist,

"I have been tasked with examining any and all artifacts from your ships, and if I snap my fingers these two _gentlemen_ will tear you apart" the little man said threateningly and now Ben were smiling but Kono could see it was a smile that didn't reach his eyes that were now hard as steel,

"And just HOW are you going to _snap_ your fingers after I've ripped both your arms off?" Ben said menacingly,

By now Zoe came running and stood in front of Ben, and by now Ben had realized that Zoe and Maddy were there and calmed down significantly but still ready to pounce at the over two meter tall Clan infantry warriors,

"You will NOT hurt my Uncle Ben" Zoe stated firmly and stared _down_ the warriors that looked at her and then Ben who looked back until Alicia stood up and marched straight over

"Warriors STAND DOWN" she barked and the warriors obeyed and stood at attention, she then looked at the scientist

"Scientist-general Wallace what the heck is this?" she started, "You were NOT supposed to start a fight with these people but ask nicely" she then stated and _Wallace_ squirmed under her gaze

"But SaKhan Khan, Taylor told me to start examine what these people had taken from that cache and I thought by any means" he answered

"No Malcolm you were supposed to ask their science officer to be allowed to copy the memory core and deliver the files she requested, NOT harassing them" she stated

"It was THIS oaf that refused to allow me onto that antique of a dropship of theirs and to examine their mechs" Malcolm stated

Alicia sighed and turned to Ben

"Lieutenant could you find your science officer and the clan would be very grateful if you as the overall mech commander would allow our scientists to examine your mechs….under your supervision of course" Wash said to Ben, she felt it more than just courtesy to use the man's rank as well as his position to try and _smooth_ over this little misunderstanding,

"Okay but I want to supervise these _examinations_, and if you want to talk to our science officer she's standing right here" Ben said and pointed at Maddy and then picked up Zoe who stretched out her arms at him – once in his arms she hugged him tightly and glared menacingly at the clan warriors who threw up their hands in surrender,

"Don't you DARE hurt my uncle" Zoe said with her eyes practically on fire, and Ben blushed a bit but the warriors simply chuckled warmly at them

"Don't worry little miss, we know better than to annoy a mechwarrior, especially when they are protected by such a cute little thing as you" one of them said and took off his helmet and revealed to be a bald black man

"Star commander William _Big Bob_ Watts at your service young Lady" he said and saluted at Zoe who giggled

"Are YOU a giant?" she asked

"My teachers at the sibco called me worse little Lady" he answered and smiled at her and then nodded curtly to Ben who did the same

"Maybe you and I could face off in a training circle of equals" he then said, Ben carefully put Zoe down and then looked the warrior up and down

"Maybe if I can be in my mech, then we can hash this out face to face" he said with a half smile, at first Watts just looked down at him and then burst out laughing and gave Ben a Thump on the shoulder that nearly caused Ben to lose his balance

"HA HA, I like ya" He said now with a definite friendly tone and a wide smile, and Ben smiled also until Wash and Kono cleared their throats

"Where did you say your science officer was again? Because it CAN'T be this girl" Malcolm queried

"THIS is my niece Miss Madelyn Shannon to you and NOT girl" Ben told him warningly and the scientist backed down and introduced himself to Maddy

"Scientist-General Malcolm Wallace of Clan Wolverine at your service my Lady" Malcolm said and smiled trying to salvage whatever masculinity he had

"Madelyn Shannon, unofficial science officer of the Jumpship Pilgrim" Maddy answered nervously

"And Maddy it's the Pilgrim Regulars we call ourselves now" Kono corrected her and she beamed at him

They walked out of the building and through the settlement, there were people everywhere working and chatting, and children ran around playing as if nothing ever mattered and as if they hadn't just weeks before had to flee their homes, Ben were brought out of his musings by a tug on his sleeve and looked down to see little Zoe stretching up her arms at him, he smiled and picked her up on his hip and smiled at her, "_She finally gotten used to me_" he thought happily, Jim and Elisabeth had tried to send him pictures and holo vids of the children every year to Outreach – but sending anything by HPG wasn't exactly cheap, ComStar took a hefty price for anything sent depending the size and length of anything, so every time the Crescent Hawks came in for their yearly review together with the Kell Hounds,

"And ONE thing _Scientist-General_, you will NOT demean my uncle because he's a mercenary, it might interest you to know that he sent most of his earnings back to us – his family" Maddy said angrily at Malcolm, she didn't care WHAT these _clan_ people thought of mercenaries NOONE spoke ill of HER Brave Uncle Ben,

"Mercenaries only fight for money nothing else, not honour" Malcolm maintained

"Then you know nothing about mercenaries, Uncle Ben have served with the Crescent Hawks under Jason Youngblood, and during the war of 39 he won TWO medals by both the Houses of the Federated Commonwealth" Maddy rambled angrily,

"Maddy its okay sweetie, I'm used to this treatment" Ben said and _Big Bob_ just stopped and looked at Ben

"YOU were with the Crescent Hawks, Under Jeremiah Youngblood?" Bob asked,

"With Jason Youngblood actually since Jeremiah were his father, he died about a decade ago, but yes Jason Youngblood was my commanding officer until I had to resign in order to go back to Panpour to help my family" Ben replied

"The fame of that Unit has reached us even out here beyond the Periphery" Bob said with reverence in his voice,

"He even got medals from both Katrina Steiner and from Hanse Davion for saving his life by accepting a challenge by a commander from the other side in Prince Davion's place, I heard he even saved the life of the enemy commander when both their mechs was in flames" Maddy rambled and Big Bob tried to follow and even the SaKhan stopped and stared at Ben who by now looked very embarrassed,

"And I can confirm the truth of that since the Kurita commander was none other than my father Omi Takeda, after having rammed his mech Benjamin san here left his own fallen mech and rescued my father – and nearly getting killed himself in the process, afterward my father declared Benjamin as a samurai in gratitude and in honour of his selfless act of bravery" Akiko added proudly, by now Washington was definitely interested and Kono smirked at Ben's discomfort

"Yep my little brother's a war hero" Kono declared and Maddy smiled though they remembered waiting at the Panpour star port with the rest of the family when Ben came home from the war.

*Flashback*

Panpour Star port 3039

As the light military dropship landed, and the ramp started to open the Shannon family; Jim and his wife Elisabeth and adopted brother Kono Lao and Jim and Elisabeth's two children Josh and Maddy plus Jim and Ben's grandfather Joshua Shannon were all apprehensive, as they hadn't seen Ben in over four years and they had received a message by HPG that Ben would be coming home for some R&R, they had all been worried when the war of 3039 broke out, with war being such a constant that really shouldn't have been that bothersome since in the Inner Sphere _War was a way of life_ for most of its trillions of denizens.

But to the Shannon's and Lao this was different, true they knew that many families would never see their loved ones who had gone to the war almost two years ago, as they had heard precious little about Ben other than he had received some heavy war medals including the Cameron Star which was something they were proud of him for it.

Maddy had only been barely five years old the last time she had seen her Uncle Ben, she didn't really understand why Ben had to go to war if it was so terrible, but nonetheless she was excited to see him again.

The loading ramp had now opened fully and some personnel started walking out and among them a young man with the insignia of the _Crescent Hawks_ left the dropship heavily supported by crutches and a duffle bag on his back, Elisabeth put her hand over her mouth and her eyes looked moist as Jim and Kono both walked up to meet their little brother, they had all been told Ben had been injured though not how severe so when they saw he were still in bandages on his head and seemed to move carefully but despite that he smiled widely when he noticed his brothers coming at him and they both hugged him lightly, and Kono despite Ben's protests took the bag from him and Jim supported Ben as they walked and met the rest of the family, both Josh and Maddy lunged at him hugging him and both crying at seeing him again,

"Uncle Ben you're home," Maddy squealed and hugged Ben and he smiled at her and were then accosted by Josh who always looked up to Ben

"Did you kill many dracs in the war?" was his obvious question; Ben simply smiled and kissed their foreheads

"I've missed both of you so much" he managed to choke out before he tried to rise up but needed help - this time from his grandfather who gave him a good strong hug,

"You look totally beat son" he said and Ben chuckled weakly, he could have stayed longer until more recovered at the military hospital but he wanted to come as soon as possible, Elisabeth came up and hugged him,

"Welcome home Ben, I'd like to examine you as soon as we are home – you really should have stayed at the hospital longer" she greeted and then scolded him

"I'm fine everyone, I wanted to come home ASAP, I've been given 6 months leave to recuperate, so why waste it at some far off world" Ben stated tiredly everyone could see he were tired as he leaned heavily on the crutches.

Josh and Maddy of course loved having their _war hero _uncle at home, and the friends and neighbours came by to congratulate him which made Ben embarrassed as many mostly kids wanted to see his medals.

When the time came for Ben to leave again Josh and Maddy who worshiped their uncle cried rivers though Josh acted more angry than sad, Maddy simply held on to Ben as they waited for the dropship to finish its preparations for takeoff,

"Please don't go Uncle Ben, I don't want you to go" she pleaded, Kono who were there to wave him off too saw how Ben's heart were breaking at having to leave, Ben simply crouched down to Maddy's level

"Hey sweetie, tell you what, this medal is the Order of the Cameron Star, why don't you hold on to it for me so I can find my way home again" he said and put the silver chain with the medal around her neck and hugged her, and then turned to Josh

"And Josh you hold on to these two for me" he said and handed the other two medals to Josh and gave them both a bear hug,

"I love you two more than anything in the universe – never forget that" he said to them and rose and bid farewell of the rest of his family and entered the dropship.

It would take almost eight years until he returned.

*Flashback ends*

Maddy remembered she cried for days after Ben had left and Josh had been off as well, she then saw Josh coming from the direction of their house and she waved at him,

"Josh can you go back to the house and get Uncle Ben's medals?" she asked

"Why me, can't you go yourself?" Josh grumbled

"Please these people apparently don't like Uncle Ben because he's a mercenary, so I thought if we showed them his medals they might actually show him some respect" she rambled pleadingly, Josh rolled his eyes in defeat

"Okay I'll get them" he relented

"OH, get my plexpad too" Maddy yelled after him and he turned

"Anything else you need, some tea perhaps, madam?" Josh teased and then turned and walked back to the house.

Marcus Reynolds Mechwarrior and Star commander of Clan Wolverine walked from the transport vehicle that had dropped him off at the settlement,  
as he was passing some houses he noticed Captain Shannon standing around talking to some of his people, Mark hurried over,

"Captain Shannon, may I speak to you sir?" Mark said unsurely, he were at least a head taller than the man but Mark still got nervous every time he had to talk to him and today Mark had decided to talk to Shannon about his daughter – about Maddy – about courting her, Jim turned around and glared at the young man who obviously was interested in his little girl,

"Yeah what is it...Reynolds right?" Jim said, he knew the boy's name but he DID want the kid to squirm a little, and it gave Jim some pleasure seeing this giant twitch every time he saw Jim, this kid who seemed so _meek_ especially when Maddy were around, he'd been coming by the house or _come a courting_ as Ben had said,

"You do know sir that I've initiated the preliminary stages of a Trial of courtship and I'd like to declare my intentions about your daughter Madelyn to formalize the courtship" Mark stuttered, Elisabeth were walking over from the infirmary they had set up a couple of weeks earlier by scavenging parts from the dropship the _Refuge_, while the _Gauntlet_ were being refit with a repair section by sacrificing space for some of the heavy vehicles they had found at the cache,

Elisabeth came up and stood just beside Jim but he hadn't noticed her yet as he were glaring at Reynolds,

"Reynolds you DO know I pilot possibly the largest and meanest battlemech on this planet AND I've also got a lousy temper and a tendency to hold grudges right?" Jim stated only to get kicked on his leg by Elisabeth and looked into those chocolate brown eyes of hers and there was a fire there and Jim could see the message clearly in them "_BEHAVE_", Jim turned back to Reynolds who didn't seemed to have noticed the unspoken command from Doctor Shannon,

"So what do you want to do about Madelyn?" Jim asked as politely as he could stomach

"I'd like yours and Doctor Shannon's permission to initiate the Trial of courtship in earnest by declaring my intentions to your daughter" Mark stated Deadpan

"Of course we give you our permission Mark" Elisabeth said before Jim had even a chance to say anything and just stared at her and then resigned and turned to Reynolds again,

"Alright as you just heard you have our permission, but DON'T forget what I said kid" Jim stated with another glare at Reynolds who looked as if he couldn't be happier and smiled and stood at attention and saluted Jim, Elisabeth giggled at it,

"Well what are you waiting for warrior? I saw her and a few others INCLUDING my brothers walking toward the Hope about half an hour ago!" Jim said, and Reynolds simply spun on his heel and took off running out of the settlement and towards the _Hope_.

When Mark finally got to the _Hope_ after running on record time he could see there were some guards with those old Nighthawk armour armed with pulse laser rifles, Mark walked up to one of them,

"Excuse me is Madelyn Shannon inside the dropship?" he asked the militia man looked at him and then shook his head

"No sir she's at the Gauntlet over there" the militia man replied and pointed in the direction of the other dropship,

"Thanks" Mark said and walked over to the _Gauntlet_, It wasn't that far away from the _Hope_,

"_However landed that thing must be crazy...one wrong move and it would have crashed into the two others_" Mark thought as he saw the _Gauntlet_ was _parked_ right in between the _Hope _and the _Refuge_...Dangerously close.

Maddy was helping Scientist-General Malcolm Wallace with understanding the Panpour memory core as it were being called, and the clan scientist kept scratching his head at all the data in the core,

"This is remarkable how easily you have learned all this – have you had your IQ tested?" Malcolm asked excited at finding such a young person with such understanding,

"Well I went to school but I've learned most of it on my own" Maddy said shyly, when Mark Reynolds walked in smiling like a complete moron,

"_What's up with this idiot?_" Ben thought as Malcolm begged Maddy to take an IQ test later during the week and when he got a satisfactory answer and had been allowed to copy the memory core over to the Clan Wolverine computers in the capital _Terra nova _city!

As everyone was leaving Mark walked forward to Maddy,

"Are you doing anything now?" he asked nervously

"I'll be studying all this history from the Clan about the Exodus and their history up until they came here" Maddy rambled and looked at her plex with longing eyes and walked to a computer terminal on the dropship to download the contents of the information from Malcolm onto her plexpad, Mark shuffled after and Ben decided that it may be time to leave them alone...but not too alone as he walked out of the cargo hold and stood at the door waiting with Zoe standing right beside him – SHE of course already knew what was about to happen – for her age she could understand quite a few things.

Mark finally couldn't wait anymore "_Here goes nothing_" he thought as he straightened and;

"I'd like to declare my intentions to you Maddy Shannon" he blurted out,  
outside Ben heard it and face palmed himself, "_MORON_"

Maddy turned around and looked at Mark with suspicious eyes

"You want to do WHAT to me?" she queried, and as he moved closer with that adorably cute expression of nervousness and outright fear,

"To court you Miss Shannon" he said and looked at her with such nervous expectation that Maddy swooned right there and then but tried to compose herself, "_NOONE have ever wanted to date me before_"

"You mean like a date – why didn't you say so?" she queried

"That's not how it's done, you see in the clan I'm supposed to address you in a certain way and come calling at your house and then talk to your father and with his approval, I'll take you to an event  
outside the home that would be pleasing to you, it's called the _Trial of courtship_!" he rambled out, while Maddy looked up at him and smiled – swooning at what he was saying,

"Plus that's how you deserve to be treated – as a lady" Mark added

"You – wish – to – court...me?" Maddy could barely breathe at his words; to court was what they used to do in the distant past on Terra,

"Yeah...this is how they...used to do it on Terra and Clan Wolverine have revived the custom so as to have better coupling regulations then the _other clans_" Mark said,

"I think that's a great custom" Maddy said

"So do I have the honour?" Mark asked with that smile she just COULD'T resist,

"Yes, I'd love to" she said and Mark offered her his arm, Maddy beamed at him and took the offered arm and they walked out of the dropship – of course Ben and Zoe had already left in a hurry when Maddy had said yes and Ben managed to coax Zoe to leave with him by bribing her that they'd ask Maddy later to make her famous pie, meanwhile without knowing it fully Kono had actually initiated his own _Trial of courtship_ with SaKhan Alicia Washington.

**Well that was chapter 7 folks please leave some reviews and tell me what you think of it!**


	8. Trials

**So here comes chapter 8, enjoy, And I do NOT own either of these two great works. A BIG thanks go to doctor anthony for helping me write part of this chapter and to Fallensurvivor for advice.**

**Interlude**

3048 Planet Panpour, Federated Commonwealth, Periphery March

Matam planetary capital, office of Henry Radcliff

Henry Radcliff smiled as he looked at the collection on the wall, unlike the collections of most people of his status. He didn't have animal heads on the wall. He had a collection of something else entirely on his wall. The heads of all the men who had tried to take him down,

Rival crime bosses, politicians, reporters and policemen who refused to see the value of money.

Some would say that fate better than what happened to the women of the men who crossed him or who got in his way. They were properly re-educated' and made into his maids to clean his mansion during the day and at night entertain him and his men.

Henry then looked at two blank spots of the wall with names under the empty slots. The names were detective Jim Shannon and detective Kono Lao.

He then lit up a cigar and imagined when he would have the heads of Lao and Shannon to add to the collection and had new entertained at night by Shannon's wife Elizabeth.

His mercenaries were busy rounding up as many _unwanted _as they could lay their hands on as slaves from all around Panpour,  
Henry got interrupted in his musings when his second Andrew came in with a smile on his face,

"Sir I have splendid news we have managed to procure over four hundred thousand new slaves for the expedition" he said and bowed,

"And what about the other preparations?" Henry asked

"Yes sir, the vanguard fleet has already left Terra to set up recharging stations along the path of the _expedition_ and the main armada is gathering at various points and will meet at the planet we named as Nova Roma" Andrew replied and continued;

"Our own part of that fleet is gathering in this system right now, no one in the Inner Sphere will know about this – for all they know we are preparing a new colonization outside the Sphere"

"And the slaves are being transported up to the waiting jumpships, and the jumpships carrying the parts for the new model HPG as well, through our contacts in the Marian Hegemony we may get additional slaves as well" he finished with a bow and walked out of the office,

"_Things are moving along nicely_" Henry thought before ordering a _servant_ to start packing things up,

"_Soon Shannon your head will adorn my wall and the rest of those heathens shall finally be of some use to the universe_".

**Interlude ends...**

Maddy were walking with Mark holding hands through the improvised market of _Hope's Landing_ as the refugee settlement had been named, the previous month many of the former refugees had started clearing up land for farming as they had all collectively through Jim decided that they wanted to be as self sufficient as possible, they had brought seeds and seedlings for fruit trees and bushes that the clan apparently had none of, Maddy couldn't fathom a society without even apples!  
Most of what were in the various stalls was whatever Terra Nova could cultivate, there were some weird _fruits_ and vegetables brought by the merchant class people from the capital,

"Mark how come during those trading trips by your JàrnFòlk contacts; they didn't get you seeds for even apple trees?" Maddy asked, Mark shrugged his shoulders

"Since we could grow what we needed here on the planet so other wares took precedence" Mark explained,

"Here let me buy you one of those Terra fruits" Mark said and took her to a stall selling some – to Maddy – strange brown looking fruit, Maddy saw the man behind the stall was in a high tech wheel chair, and she soon noticed why as the man's legs _ended_ right above the knees, he was sitting on a large and thick fur pelt of some animal, he noticed Maddy were watching his legs and smiled wryly at her,

"Hope my legs don't scare ya too much there little missy?" he asked jokingly

"Back off _merchant_" Mark snapped derogatorily at him and Maddy gasped at his attitude,

"And what are ya gonna do about it _warrior_?" the merchant retorted mockingly his lips were twitching until Mark couldn't hold out any longer and started chuckling and the merchant started laughing as well, Maddy was puzzled until the merchant looked at her and smiled friendly,

"I'm glad the rumours were true, that little Mark here finally met a good girl to be with, AND such a beauty at that" he said warmly, and Maddy blushed

"Name's Casey Durwin formerly clan warrior cast now _retired_, ya have to excuse my legs not being here to greet ya since I lost them during the sixer revolt and I occasionally teach at the sibcos _including_ THIS little whippersnapper" Mister Durwin introduced

"Madelyn Shannon at your service Mister Durwin" Maddy introduced herself,

"Casey's too modest, he's the best damn instructor I've had apart from the Khan and SaKhan" Mark declared to Maddy,

"Nowadays I usually dabble in the merchant caste" Casey said unfazed by the flattery,

"So what can I get ya, Mark, query?" he asked

"One Terra fruit please" Mark asked and Casey gave one that looked...juicy,

"That'll be three Terras" Casey said and Mark paid him, and then they walked to a bench and sat down and together managed to open the hard shell of the fruit, and both took a bite out of it and to Maddy at least it tasted almost like kiwi fruit,

"It tastes almost like kiwi fruit it may be a distant _relative_ of the kiwi or they may have similar evolutionary history but that shouldn't be possible unless Doctor Aadesh's theory on universal similarity would be given at least some credence" she rambled and Mark smiled at her shear knowledge and at how wonderfully her eyes kept sparkling whenever she _rambled_ like that,

"_By Mabon, she's perfect how can I ever hope of being worthy of her?_" he thought, years ago Mark had learned welsh which was the native language of his distant progenitors and had decided to _convert_ sort of to the religion of the ancient welsh people, even though the welsh _descendants_ that lived on Terra Nova where only a handful many of his sibco had followed suit and they had as a group of sorts fought a Trial of position for their ethnic _preference _as the clan usually transcended ethnicity.

But here with these people Mark felt that he belonged in a strange way that totally went against his clan upbringing, and with Maddy especially he felt he belonged with her.

A gentle tap on his shoulder brought Marcus Reynolds out of his thoughts and he turned around to Maddy, who looked at him embarrassed,

"Sorry if I ramble like that, I sort of get carried away some times...or should I say a lot of times and I tend to ramble when I get...nervous!" she stated embarrassingly,

"Maddy you should never ever apologize for being who you are" Mark declared and smiled that dazzling smile that made her knees turn to goo "_he is perfect, not only does he have a beautiful body and face, he's so damn nice all the time...though I haven't seen him without that cooling suit on_" Maddy thought before the last part of it made her blush fiercely, obviously Mark seemed to have noticed that and she cleared her throat violently,

"Are you alright?" Mark queried

"Oh I'm fine, Mark, I just had to clear my throat" Maddy replied

"I'd like to ask about these trials, what you called the _Trial of courtship_?" she queried

"Well we have a trial for just about everything that could possibly come up like; a trial of Grievance, a Trial of Position, a Trial of Bloodright, a Trial of possession, a Trial of Refusal and...a Trial of Annihilation, these are the old trials when the clan came here and named this world Terra Nova as in new, the Khan realized since having rescued slaves from various parts of the Inner Sphere before getting here and those knew nothing of clan traditions and laws so we needed special trials or at least revised the old for dealing with non clan members, for example the Trial of Faith is about choosing ones spiritual path – like me and my sibco fought and won our right to practice what we felt was the faith of our ancestors – in this case the welsh pantheon since I'm of welsh genetic heritage and we won, plus I taught myself the language as well" Mark explained

"You worship the old welsh gods?" Maddy queried and Mark nodded

"We also celebrate in the old sibco Y Garreg a'r Crochan in honour of our faith" Mark explained

"That's interesting, we used to have great celebrations within the welsh communities in honour of that also on Panpour" Maddy replied

"Yeah I heard" Mark said

"That's why I feel a bit more at home here among your people since I learned most of you were welsh" he stated

"I thought it was because of me?" Maddy asked sadly

"You were and always WILL be the primary reason" he stated deadpan to which she beamed at him and blushed

"But back to the Trials, I can understand at least the reason for some of them but why a Trial of Courtship?" Maddy asked quickly changing the subject

"To more easily facilitate relations between members of the clan to non members this particular Trial was invented by Khan Taylor himself since he felt there could otherwise potentially cause trouble – and if there are two or more vying for the affections of the same person then one or the other or even the person of interest may declare that the Trial has to be settled by combat" he explained further

"I would never force you to fight over me" Maddy said

"But I would if anyone else challenged me over you I would fight and though it CAN happen it doesn't have to end in fatality" Mark declared,

Maddy felt a little frightened but also strangely _excited_ that this Clan Wolverine mechwarrior would truly fight for her honour – AND her favour,

"_Like some medieval knight or something – these clan rules seems more interesting by the day_" she thought swooning a little,

"You could look into the files I'm guessing Wallace brought you" he finished and she nodded and smiled,

"You said you know welsh – so do I – say something in welsh to me" Maddy pleaded giving him that smile that so completely turned him into goo,

"Rydych chi yn y forwyn harddaf a welais erioed" Mark said with full honesty in his amazing eyes and since Maddy understood perfectly what he just said of course she swooned...AND blushed.

At the _Gauntlet_ Kono was checking with the officer on duty of the _Hope_ militia on a few things when he saw a military transport car coming towards the settlement and turned toward the area where the now two dropships – as the _Refuge_ had been almost totally dismantled in order to build up the infirmary and other important buildings in the settlement, Khan Taylor had offered the needed materiel but Jim had politely refused as he wanted – the people under wanted to pay for themselves and did not want anymore handouts,

The staff car came to a stop in front of the _Gauntlet_ and Khan Taylor exited the vehicle and started walking towards Kono with determined steps, when he stood in front of Kono he stared the younger man down and Kono felt unease at his grim face

"What are your intentions toward my SaKhan Lieutenant Lao?" Taylor asked deadpan and Kono squirmed

"What do you mean Khan Taylor?" he asked

"Since you do not know about clan trials, I'm going to explain it to you, you have obviously unwittingly initiated a Trial of Courtship with SaKhan Alicia Washington" Taylor explained and then started explaining further what it meant by the trial in question,

"I'VE got to do WHAT?" Kono exclaimed, and Taylor gave him a small computer pad,

"So the first thing IF you want to court Wash is to ask me as her superior" Taylor stated, Kono checked the pad a few minutes,

"_Wash is a nice enough girl, so maybe I should_" Kono thought and then straightened up and returned Taylor's stare

"Khan Taylor of Clan Wolverine, I would like to declare my intentions to initiate a Trial of Courtship with SaKhan Alicia Washington" he declared and Taylor grinned for a few minutes before delivering his reply,

"Then I formally give you my permission to proceed young mechwarrior" he replied.

Further out the Terra Nova system a _Volga _class transport by its current owners named _Ayani _was hiding behind dense asteroid debris, on the bridge of the ship a woman with dark skin and beautiful features wearing a jumpsuit that revealed rather than covered her features stood and looked over her underlings as a grizzled, unshaven and all together unkempt man in a dirty jumpsuit walked up to her,

"Major Mira, the dropships have been detached and the squadrons are awaiting launch orders" the man told her

"Good Carter, send the signal to Alvarez on planet to begin his assault, we're not here to risk too many of our people in vain, we're just here to get that dropship with the memory core like Lucas ordered us to NOT start a war" Mira said resolutely, she didn't trust those new allies of Lucas...at least not as much as he apparently did when they made the suggestion that the _Sixers_ – as they had been unofficially named by Taylor and his loyal dogs not to mention Khan Taylor _de-naming _his own son calling him _Desdicado _which meant disinherited and all of them Dezgra meaning disgraced, of course no one called Lucas that other than behind his back, in his _mind_ HE was the revolutionary fighting against his father's tyranny,

True Mira was interested in getting a better life for her and her daughter on Terra Nova instead of being treated like a possession by the clan,

Carter did as he were told and sent the signal to Alvarez's dropship that had managed to hide nearer to the planet thanks to his dropship being one that they had captured only recently,

"_Maybe we can kill that old bastard this time, too bad about those spheroids maybe they'll see things our way soon enough?_" Carter thought

On Alvarez's dropship they were hailed by the planetary orbital tracking station,

"Terra Nova tracking station to dropship Tiberius, where are your jumpship we can't pick her up" the station commander asked

"It suffered a minor engine failure when we jumped in she's farther out the system she'll join us eventually, but I need to take this tub down to planet" Alvarez reported and hoped the ruse would work out,

"Dropship Tiberius you are authorized to land outside the city at the southern main road, near Hope's Landing" the station commander ordered

"_Hope's Landing_?" Alvarez asked in mock surprise, he knew thanks to their spies exactly what the new settlement was and ordered descent and walked to the improvised mech bay to prepare as they would only get one chance at this,

Further out Mira gave the attack signal for the _Sixer_ squadrons and out of two more dropships and their mother ship the _Ayani_ known to the clan as _Envy_ launched dozens of aerospace fighters against the now surprised orbital defence forces, they had created a good diversion by capturing a small way station and making it look as if the sixers were attacking in force in the neighbouring system luring away the clans mighty battleship _Wolverine's claw_ and now Terra Nova only had a few second line squadrons of light aerospace fighters and one of their corvettes protecting them,

Down on the planet the people of _Hope's Landing_ watched as the large dropship came down through the atmosphere secure in that on this world so far from any conflict zone, when the ship touched down only a few klicks from the settlement and started disembarking battlemechs and combat vehicles, Ben who were making his report to Jim at the _Gauntlet_ looked over,

"Are they supposed to be doing that?" Jim asked Ben in welsh who had a lot more experience with what he thought could be some military manoeuvre,

"NOT without telling us since the territory around the settlement is our sovereign property by the deal we made with them" Ben answered and took off towards his own battlemech,

"Jim you better sound the alert for the militia to come and start defensive preparations NOW and after that I would need you and your new toy out there with me – where the hell is Kono by the way?" he yelled as he activated the elevator to where his _Axman_ was _parked_,

In the city Mark was making his report to Khan Taylor of his dealings with the _Regular's _but mostly Taylor were interested in hearing about Mark's ongoing Trial of Courtship with the Shannon girl,  
Taylor took an interest in what his subordinates were doing but young Star Commander Reynolds since Taylor unbeknownst to Mark in a way was his father...biologically that is, and saw him as such,

"You really said that...in welsh?" Taylor chuckled at when Mark told him, he felt pride in that Mark always told the truth – not even a white lie would pass this man's lips,

All of a sudden the alarm went off and Taylor grabbed his com unit,

"Taylor here what's the alarm about?" he barked into the com

"Khan the sixers are attacking we are sending every aerospace asset we have at them" the officer on the other end reported

"Are they heading here?" Taylor asked

"No sir, they're advancing on Hope's Landing" the officer replied, that last made Mark's heart freeze

"Gods Maddy is there" he said and quickly looked to Taylor who nodded and followed himself

"Muster what forces we have at hand and send them over to Hope's Landing ASAP" Taylor barked into the com as he had to run to catch up to Reynolds as they ran towards the mech garage,

"Those people are going to need some help" Taylor said after he and Reynolds made it over to the mech garage and were now marching they're battlemechs out of the city at top speed – Reynolds switched his mech into running mode thanks to the MASC gear on his _Stag_ battlemech, Taylor's own _Pulverizer_ a 90 ton assault battlemech were much slower, he could see some of the Touman marching out to join the fray only three Stars of mechs and infantry had managed to muster as the rest were out on manoeuvres in the jungle together with most of the infantry clusters,

"_They really caught us napping_!" he thought angrily, his disgraced son were growing bold indeed to dare to attack here on the planet, "_How the hell did they know we were so vulnerable just now_?" he thought again as he contacted the lead mech of the second Star,

"Second Star, you remain in the city just in case they decide to grow even cockier" he ordered

"Yes sir" the Star Commander in command answered

At the settlement civilians were running to whatever safety their homes could provide, Josh and Kara had been helping out with some work in the infirmary with Maddy and Elisabeth when the call came from his dad,

"All Pilgrim Regular's militia members are to report to their designated areas of defence, aero jocks to your fighters, this is not a drill I repeat this is NOT a drill, we are under attack" Josh and Kara didn't need any more incentive as they both took off on Josh's motorbike towards the _Hope_ to get to their fighters or in Josh's case his _Stinger_ LAM, Elisabeth really didn't want any of her children in another warzone, she had hoped they would be free from such here,

"_Shiva, protect my little ones_" she prayed silently as she instructed Maddy to take Zoe into the newly built core room in the command centre right next to the infirmary with the rest of the non-combatants, the _Core room_ were where they were going to keep the memory core as soon as it was finished...now it had to make do as a shelter,

Kono was outside together with Alicia on a walk outside the settlement when the alarms went off and he got the call to assemble the units modest battlemech lance luckily they were not far from the _Hope_ where his _Urban_mech was still parked,

"Alicia you wait here" he said to her

"The hell I will they're most likely after the memory core, I'll take temporary command of the _Hope_ and direct fire support and you get out there with the rest of your unit" she said and gave some quick orders to what few militia infantry there were at the ship as Kono mounted his _Urban_ cursing he couldn't get to his _Starslayer_ instead since it was still on the _Gauntlet_,

As Kono marched out one of the lead battlemechs of whomever these people were tried taking a pot shot at him but overshot him due to his mechs low height, Kono engaged his jumpjets to his opponents great surprise and landed close enough to target the enemy mech what looked like a Star League era _Stag_ and fired his medium LB-X Autocanon and kept blasting the poor sucker in its front chassis at almost point blank range while also blasting away with his small pulse laser the enemy mech got turned into scrap by this barrage,

"Who the hell are these people?" Kono blurted out

"Sixers, traitors – bandits you'd call them, we call them Dark Caste" Alicia answered him over the com

Then Kono realised he had jumped into a veritable swarm or these _Sixers_ or _Dark caste_ and engaged his jumpjets again after firing off his pulse laser again, the Urbanmech was not meant for heavy combat especially against multiple enemies, he hit one of the enemy combat vehicles destroying it with ease but there were many more than he knew he could handle.

Only a couple of klicks away, Ben heard the com chatter between Kono and Alicia and the word bandit awoken his anger,

"This is MechCommander Wolverine to Pilgrim mech lance, Buckshot, Hammer form up at the _Gauntlet_, militia infantry those among you that can pilot a mech report to the _Gauntlet_'s mech bay on the double the rest take up firing positions, second line militia platoons take up defensive positions at the settlement, if they get past us...DO NOT let them take the settlement" most of the light militia members stayed in the settlement with some squads remaining around the command centre and the infirmary, while the former policemen who acted as close to an _elite _platoon as they could dressed in the Nighthawk armour moved out and took up positions with heavy weapons and started engaging the combat vehicles, which was Not prepared for this level of opposition at all.

Mark headed over to the settlement were he saw a couple of hostile _Urbanmechs_ heading into towards the command centre, Mark fired all his lasers at its legs toppling the diminutive mech instantly, and then saw something that made his blood freeze just outside the command centre he could see little Zoe running in front of the building as Maddy caught up to her and started pulling her inside, the remaining enemy mech were already too close to the command centre for Mark to dare risk a stray shot so he engaged his MASC gear and tackled the enemy who went down in the middle of the street where it got swarmed by the light militia squads in the area quickly opening its cockpit and overpowering its pilot,

"Missile warning" his combat computer blared out and he turned his mech in the direction and saw a number of hostile vehicles closing in at him, Mark knew if he moved his mech out of the way he'd be safe but the command centre would definitely take the barrage instead and there were the risk that it might collapse on top of Maddy and Zoe and whoever else was in there, so Mark made a snap decision to stand his ground and called out over his speakers at the militia,

"Secure the civilians in the command centre, I'll hold them off" Mark ordered and stepped out into the path of the missiles and targeted the enemy LRM and SRM vehicles,

"If I shall die then I will take a few of them with me, and if I die for Maddy than that is what I'll accept!" he declared and fired off as many shots as he could before the first missiles started impacting his mech

In the command centre Maddy recognized Mark's voice even distorted by the speakers and dared to look at some monitors of the battle unfolding in and around the settlement, and saw that this time they were far more outnumbered though better equipped...and her family and boyfriend were out in the middle of it all,

Several kilometres away Khan Taylor and his command Star were making short work of the Sixer rear while he sent the other Star to give direct support to the _Pilgrim Regular's_ at the dropships,

"Star Commander Watts, take your infantry into the settlement, it looks like those cowards are shelling it" he ordered, and wondered why the hell even Lucas would be crazy enough to make such an attack even HE must've understood the futility of?

At the _Gauntlet_ Ben were having trouble with the sheer numbers of enemies coming at them he could already see a number of those cowardly bastards entering the settlement,

"_There's too many of them...DAMN IT!_" he thought bitterly and charged on downing another mech only the get painted by another three, sure they were light mechs mostly but they were ganging up on them one at a time and with these numbers they could afford the risk, he could see Jim had no problems as his _Atlas_ simply had too thick armour for these bandit scum to penetrate with their weapons, he engaged his jumpjets and landed in the middle of a group of light mechs and swung his axe and scrapped one firing his lasers at another and his autocanons at a second.

Jim had no problems as the hostiles kept trying to get past him he didn't even need to use his mechs full potential and still he was scoring several downed mechs and vehicles, he could see Ben's mech was struggling but held his own, but even he could see it would only be a matter of time before the enemy would overwhelm them by sheer weight of numbers, now both dropships were letting loose the full capacity of their mostly defensive armaments blasting infantry and vehicles alike that came too close, Jim fired his weapons array again at a group of mechs and vehicles that were dumb enough to come at him just a wee bit tightly packed and turned the area they had _occupied_ into a mess of craters.

By now those few members of the _Pilgrim Regulars_ that had some proficiency at piloting mechs had finally arrived and two more battlemechs one _Lancelot_ and a _Highlander_ joined the fray – the _Lancelot_ engaged what Sixer aerospace fighters there were and the _Highlander_ engaged the enemy vehicles and mechs at long range, the new additions were totally green at mech combat but at least they added firepower, Jim though inexperienced at this could see that the battle was slowly turning in their favour as he by now noticed Clan Wolverine battlemechs were arriving and started to pound the enemy forces mercilessly, and the infantry elements of the Pilgrim _Regulars_ were beginning to chase off what Sixer forces that had managed to get near _Hope's Landing_ and were now engaging the SRM vehicles.

Kono had seen the LRM/SRM vehicles shelling at the settlement and charged at them firing as he went and as he got closer he started shelling the enemy with his autocanon with cluster rounds scrapping vehicles and turning what infantry there was into a bloody mess, he could see Ben could use some help but Kono had enough trouble by himself – he hated himself for making that decision but as Ben had said he must secure the settlement.

Some ways out Alvarez in his _Pulverizer_ battlemech felt the need to start thinking of a final push into the settlement, maybe if they managed to hold the civilians hostage they could bargain for the core...or at least be allowed to retreat as more and more Wolverine mechs and infantry joined the fray.

Ben could see the _Pulverizer_ that seemed to be the only heavy mech among these bandits and advanced toward it,

"Attention Bandit in the Pulveriser, are you the leader of this rabble?" he asked

"Who wants to know?" Alvarez queried

"I am Ben Shannon call sign Wolverine of the Pilgrim Regulars and I challenge you on mech combat" Ben declared

Alvarez could see this upstart calling him out had taken enough hits plus his mech was nowhere near the weight class of his own plus Alvarez could clearly see he had the advantage in weapons complement and that _axe_ his enemy was wielding though it had downed more than a few of his own forces it should not be able to get through his _Pulverizer's _armour,

"Then I accept, I'll junk your mech and then I'll claim whatever's yours as my own" he stated and fired off a salvo he thought should be enough to dispatch this fool and was utterly surprised at how easily the other mech ducked and fired its own weapons at him and then used his jumpjets to get closer which made it a whole lot more difficult for Alvarez to use his own mostly long range weaponry,

Taylor witnessed the duel after he heard Ben or _Wolverine's_ challenge towards Alvarez, and he was not disappointed at what he saw was some really good mech piloting, Taylor had already been impressed by the _Pilgrim Regulars_ sheer stubbornness and Ben Shannon's ability to lead on the battlefield,

Ben kept going in close at the _Pulverizer_ and more or less preventing it from using the majority of its weapons, and swung his axe again and again aiming for the _head_ since Ben knew the axe would be next to useless anywhere else and he fired his autocanon, Ben didn't want to strike at the cockpit directly even though he could see it had already been damaged by his attacks since it would feel dishonourable,

Jim while having his hands full with these bugs in the combat vehicles kept a close eye on the duel through his battle computer, and he could see Ben could potentially end the fight there IF he only would strike at the other mechs head more,

Alvarez were getting worried, he saw his own forces backing away from the settlement and that pissed him off, using what he thought was a secure channel;

"Hey what the hell are you idiots doing get back in there and take those people hostage so I can get out of this ridiculous _duel_" he blared out so that everyone could hear on the battlefield INCLUDING the Wolverines and the _Pilgrim Regulars_ but worst of all for Alvarez...Ben Shannon who saw red – a blood red haze of hate,

"_Oops, BAD mistake_" Jim and Kono...well everyone who knew Ben Shannon thought,

As Ben's _Axman_ swung its axe straight into the central module of Alvarez's battlemech destroying his cockpit...killing him instantly, the massive battlemech stood there for a while and then fell to the ground, after that the remaining sixer vehicles, infantry and mechs seeing the battle was lost started fleeing back to their dropship.

In orbit the Battleship and active frigate of Clan Wolverine had made emergency jumps back into the system and together with the other warships started to drive the sixer squadrons out as the sixer dropship with the remnants of its raiding force onboard...without the loot that they thought would have been an _easy job_, Mira grinded her teeth in frustration at Lucas and his so called allies incompetence at intelligence work.

After the battle Maddy dared to come out of the command centre and found a lone _Stag_ battlemech lying in the street...wrecked but not destroyed, she had heard Mark's oath and started thinking of what Guzman had said about the armband that it recorded everything from childhood to their _dying oath_ her eyes started tearing up at the thought of Mark being...dead, she wanted to go search the mech but was stopped by a militia soldier,

"What about the mechwarrior in the battlemech?" she asked with tears in her eyes,

"He's been carried to the infirmary Miss Shannon" he said reassuringly

Maddy could see a few militiamen carrying someone into the infirmary and ran towards it,  
when she got into the infirmary there was almost chaos as the moans of wounded soldiers and even some clan warriors and one in particular who were being treated by her mother, Maddy approached the bed and saw it was Mark – he was bloody all over there were some burn marks on his coolant suit and he didn't move,

"Mom is he...?" Elisabeth couldn't turn away from her work

"He'll be alright Maddy, get your sister back home" she said and continued her work knowing that Maddy was still there waiting with Zoe in the waiting room.

After about one hour Jim came into the waiting room and Zoe ran into his arms,

"Daddy, I know you don't like Mister Mark but Maddy loves him so can you please make him better?" she pleaded and Jim looked puzzled at Maddy who had tear tracks on her cheeks, after a while Ben and Kono came in together with Josh, Kara and Akiko and all of them were dragging Cronkite with them as they had finally managed to _pry_ him away from the _Pilgrim_,

"Lads, Lassies I said I can WALK ON ME OWN!" he growled but they seemed to ignore him, especially when he started ranting in Scottish Gaelic

"What the hell happened to him?" Jim asked as he could see Cronk was limping,

"Those pirates tried boarding the Pilgrim" Josh explained

"OUCH...for them I guess, especially if they interrupted him during meal time" Jim remarked

"Yeah, he and his tech team chased them off, and I even heard he threw one of them out through an airlock for shooting up the galley" Josh said chuckling then he saw Maddy sitting there looking sadly at the doors to the OR, Josh looked at his father with a questioning look and Jim shrugged his shoulders,

"Reynolds got injured in the battle" he said deadpan, Maddy shot daggers at him

"Is that all you have to say dad?" she snapped in welsh

"He saved us in the command centre by standing his ground and letting himself be used for target practice" she hissed at him,

"Maddy that's enough young lady" Jim said harshly and then regretted it as tears started falling down Maddy's cheeks again, Jim moved quickly to her side and embraced her,

"I'm sorry baby girl, I didn't mean to sound so harsh, Reynolds – what he did was really brave putting himself into the line of fire like that" he said as Maddy sobbed against his chest,

"What...what if he...dies?" she sobbed, already she couldn't think of a universe without him,

"The one boy that likes me for me and not seeing me as some freak, and now he may die!" she continued

"Hey you mustn't think like that – besides with his build I doubt there's much that could take him down" Jim assured his distraught daughter as Zoe came forward and hugged Maddy,

"Don't worry Maddy, Mister Mark's a hero and heroes don't die" she said matter of fact, Ben couldn't help but smile slightly at Zoe's innocence,

"_If THAT were the case then we'd have one hell of an overpopulation problem, Hope he makes it – for Maddy's sake if not his own_" he thought, this was the side of war he did Not like – the aftermath when counting ones fallen comrades and all too often finding empty space were old friends should be,

Elisabeth came out of the OR and smiled tiredly

"Maddy sweetheart, he is out of danger but he is still unconscious" she said and Maddy looked up tears still rolling down her face

"Can I go in?" Maddy asked pleadingly and Elisabeth nodded,

"Yes you can go in, for a while at least, he's in the recovery ward for now" Elisabeth started before Maddy ran into the room where Mark was lying, when she found him she pulled over a chair and sat down and took his hand and kissed it and then put it to her cheek.

The battle had not been without casualties for the _Regulars_ though they had been lucky with two men dead and at least twenty in the infirmary, But Maddy didn't care about any of that as she held Mark's hand to her cheek as she rested her head on his chest listening to the powerful and steady sound of his heart beat until she finally fell asleep.

**That was chapter 8 give some reviews please as I'd really like some input.**

**Author's NOTES: the God Mabon is probably the Welsh god of love so I think its fitting Mark swearing by his name. About that Yes Elisabeth is more of a Hindu and Jim is sort of into the Welsh pantheon as are Mark. Though Maddy is more into the mixed Hindu/Welsh mysticism,**

**With so many humans in the galaxy there has to be a few millions at least that have "gone back to their roots" after all there are "Neo-Norse" people in the Inner Sphere?**

**The phrase; ****Rydych chi yn y forwyn harddaf a welais erioed, is welsh for; you are the most beautiful maiden I have ever seen!**


End file.
